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Frontispiece for "Panama" 



Light on Dark Places 
at Panama 

By 
An Isthmian Stenographer 

Fully Illustrated 




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BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 

835 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 



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'WO Copies rffeCulrjv 

APR 28 1903 



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Copyright. 1908, 

BY 

MARY A. CHATFIELD 



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All Rights Reserved 



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PREFACE. 

Letters written for the author's literary club 
describing her experience on the Isthmus of 
Panama during sixteen months' work there. 
Also of a short stay in California immediately 
before going to the Isthmus, and a subsequent 
trip to Costa Rica. 



Light on Dark Places at Panama 



San Francisco, California, 
August 15, 1905. 
Dear Club: 

I returned from the Yosemite yesterday, and 
tho disappointed in California generally, the 
visit to this valley more than repaid me for the 
trouble and expense of coming here. Also the 
Memorial Church- at Stanford University is 
worth taking a trip across the continent to see. 
The rest of the Stanford buildings are not as 
handsome as those of Yale and Columbia, in my 
opinion. But I never saw such a beautiful as- 
semblage, in so small a space, of rich carvings, 
stained glass, mosaics, etc., as in the chapel. The 
most wonderful thing of all, to me, is the blue 
eye covering the ceiling of the altar. It expresses 
all the beauty and wisdom a human being can 
imagine. I presume it represents the All-seeing 
Eye of God. I stood and looked at it until the 
back of my neck rebelled. 

One passes from the ludicrous to the sublime 
when entering this chapel. Not far from the 
entrance is a group representing the Stanford 
family. The late senator and his son are stand- 
ing and at their feet on a sofa cushion kneels the 
madam in evening dress. I should think they 
would get down and pick her up, but they do 



2 Light on Dark Places 

not even appear to see her adoration. Dame 
Rumor says many people believe she was 
slightly deranged. 

I have been interested to see Stanford Uni- 
versity ever since I heard about the brave pro- 
fessor who formerly taught there. It being his 
duty to do so, he instructed his students in re- 
gard to the way the masses of people had been 
and are being robbed by the unlawful accumu- 
lation of so many of the enormous fortunes of 
the United States, the Stanford fortune among 
the number. I do not recall his name, nor what 
he was professor of, but suppose it must have 
been economics. Great was the consternation! 
He was discharged; and other professors, and 
even instructors and tutors who expressed sym- 
pathy with him were either discharged or re- 
signed. I believe there were a few people who 
said he should not have been so indiscreet. If 
the majority of people were so indiscreet we 
would not have multi-millionaires, and thus be 
deprived of the inestimable blessing of having 
one man clutching what should rightly be di- 
vided among thousands. 

I will send you a book about the valley, for I 
feel that it is impossible for me to give you any- 
thing but a suggestion of the grandeur of the 
Yosemite. I do not know of any writer whose 
diction is fine enough for such a task but 
Macaulay. My great desire to visit the valley 
was to see the enormous trees, 5,000 years old. 
They seemed to me the most wonderful things 
on earth. Tho I am just as much impressed 
by them after seeing as before, when I looked 



at Panama 3 

up and saw the "Gates of the Valley" I forgot all 
about the trees; forgot them for a time as en- 
tirely as if I had never seen them. A picture 
gives no idea of their magnificent vastness; but 
simply a suggestion. El Capitan (The Captain), 
7,300 feet high, is the dominant peak, not the 
highest, but the most prominent. Trees 150 feet 
high on these mountains appear to be ferns. I 
enclose post cards of "The Fallen Monarch" and 
one of the trees with an opening cut large 
enough for a horse and wagon to be driven 
thru. 

If you want to see the extent of the diameter 
of one of these trees go to the Museum of 
Natural History in New York City. I saw a 
cut there from the trunk of one that had been 
felled. It stood on the floor and reached nearly 
to the ceiling. The average height of the smaller 
trees we drove thru for miles as we approached 
the valley is 150 feet. The exact size of the 
giants I have forgotten. It does not seem that 
God could have made anything more magnificent 
than the Yosemite Valley, but four different peo- 
ple in our party who had visited the Grand Can- 
yon of the Colorado say that it surpasses the 
valley. I hope to see the canyon, and at a time 
when some of you can come with me, because 
there is no coach road into it as there is into 
the Yosemite, if a ledge the width of a wagon 
track on the edge of a precipice 2,000 feet high 
is a road, and those who cannot ride horseback 
have to go afoot and I would like to walk with 
some one I know. 

I have met another stenographer here in 



4 Light on Dark Places 

'Frisco who wants to see the world and has to 
work her way. She started from New York two 
years ago and intends to go to Japan. She sails 
soon for Honolulu and wants me to go with her. 
Those who know say there is plenty of work in 
Honolulu and we are perfectly safe in going, but 
I feel too homesick to go and wish to 
return to the Atlantic coast, which is the better 
side of the United States, railroad advertisements 
of distant paradises to the contrary. As it is 
now October and substituting season is over, 
rather than run the risk of not getting a posi- 
tion for some time, I am going to return by way 
of the Pacific coast, buying my ticket thru to 
New York, so that if I cannot get work in Pan- 
ama I can go right on. I must wait here a few 
weeks until the United States Civil Service ex- 
aminations are held, because, of course, I cannot 
be given a government position unless I prove 
myself up to the standard. Tho an examination 
makes one nervous, I think my experience will 
carry me thru. I have been told if I am insane 
enough to want to work in Panama there is no 
doubt of my getting a position, whether I pass 
an examination or not, but I prefer to prove my- 
self up to the standard. My traveling has cost 
me so much that I am short of money and sub- 
stituting season is practically over in San Fran- 
cisco. My ignorance of customs here has placed 
me in this position. I thought the great demand 
for substituting would be in August and the 
first week of September, as in New York; but 
owing to the difference in the climate, the popu- 
lar vacation time is a month earlier. I want very 



at Panama 5 

much to get temporary work until the Civil Serv- 
ice examinations are held. 

Do not be surprised if I do not write again 
until I am on a ship for Panama, when I will 
have nothing else to do. Cousin Florence's argu- 
ment to stop my going is that they are forcing 
workers in every line that come to the Isthmus to 
"shovel like time" digging dirt. Imagine me 
shoveling dirt ! My aunt sent me this clipping : 

A PERIPATETIC'S APOLOGY. 
"Why don't you go to work?" 
"Lady," answered Plodding Pete, "I'm on me 
way dere now. De trouble is dat when I'm in 
New York I hear about a job dat I kin git in 
'Frisco. An' by de time I gits to 'Frisco I finds 
de job is taken an' I hears of another one in New 
York." — Washington Star. 

Affectionately yours, 

The Traveling Member. 

Steamship "Peru," off coast of California, 

November 8, 1905. 
We sailed from San Francisco yesterday, No- 
vember 7th. Since my last letter to you I have 
had a trying experience. I found the temporary 
work I desired, but it is sometimes harder to 
keep things than to find them. Mr. Gray, of the 
United States Secret Service, asked the stenog- 
rapher in the Grand Hotel to recommend an ex- 
perienced stenographer to do some temporary 
work. She gave him my name and he sent a 
message asking me to call on him next day at 
the new postoffice. I did so, and told him 01 my 



6 Light on Dark Places 

experience and brought recommendations. He 
said he did not care for recommendations, but 
would examine me and satisfy himself as to 
whether I was capable. 

After examination he said he could guarantee 
me work for "two months and possibly longer," 
but could not promise anything definitely for 
more than two months, as, if this work were 
completed then, he would be ordered elsewhere. 
I was pleased to have that time specified, for it 
would carry me to the date of the Civil Service 
examination or a little longer. "Alas for the 
best laid plans" Mr. Gray was ordered east in 
a week and the man under him stepped into his 
place. 

As the purser of this ship is kind enough to 
let me use his typewriter I shall write you a de- 
tailed account of this unusual work as well as 
my own woes. I learned things I never dreamed 
about before; interesting and distressing. 

The crews of many American ships are com- 
posed of foreign sailors. One would suppose 
after seeing the array I did that not a single 
native American follows the sea, but since em- 
barking I have been told that there are lots of 
captains on American merchantmen who arje 
natives of New England. 

During the administration of President Harri- 
son a law was snaked thru Congress pro- 
hibiting any but citizens of the United States 
from filling official positions in the American 
Merchant Marine. I heard that President Har- 
rison was opposed to signing this, but finally did 
so ; and that it was the work of naturalized aliens, 



at Panama 7 

which I believe, for real Americans, usually, are 
not so mean. The result was what might have 
been foreseen. I have no idea how many Ameri- 
can merchant ships there are afloat, but suppose 
there are thousands, and every ship has several 
officers. As soon as that law became effective all 
these men (and you must remember the majority 
of them had families to support) were thrown 
out of their positions. Naturally, to avoid this, 
there were countless naturalization papers ob- 
tained illegally. What benefit is it to a country 
to force men to become its citizens that do not 
care to be? The investigation of sailors^ fraudu- 
lent naturalization papers in San Francisco was 
engineered by a Mr. Coats. He says that for- 
eign captains refuse to hire Americans just be- 
cause they are Americans, and I inferred from 
his remarks that almost every captain is a for- 
eigner, If they do refuse to hire them for that 
reason only it is not right, but it does not seem 
possible, and I should not think an American 
would care to work under a foreigner. 

Mr. Gray's successor is, according to his state- 
ment, a real American of Dutch descent, his 
ancestors having landed in Gotham centuries, 
ago. He might as well have been an Australian 
Bushman for all the mercy he had on me. I 
had completed my first month and was spending 
the evening with another lady in the house when 
I was called to the telephone and informed by 
my superior officer that I need not report for 
work next morning, but to call at any time con- 
venient and get my money ; that his wife wanted 
my position, and while he was very sorryfor 



8 Light on Dark Places 

me he could not talk her out of it. I was too 
surprised to do anything but hang up the re- 
ceiver, but after a few moments' thought re- 
solved that I would fight for my rights. There- 
fore I went to this man's hotel and told him of 
my financial embarrassment and my desire to 
remain in San Francisco until the Civil Service 
examinations were held. Also that, not dream- 
ing of dismissal, I had just refused a permanent 
position at $75.00 per month, being satisfied with 
what I had, and not wishing to take a permanent 
position I did not intend to keep. He said he 
was very sorry for me and that he would try 
and reason with Mrs. Decker, that she was a 
young girl just out of school, subject to hysteria, 
and always threatened to do away with herself 
if crossed in her wishes, and that he would have 
to do all the work himself if he took her into the 
office, etc., etc. I called at the office next morn- 
ing, as instructed, and he told me that the best 
he had been able to do was to persuade Mrs. 
Decker to give me ten days to find another place ; 
this after being up UNTIL AFTER 3 
O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING WITH HER. 
I asked him how, not being a stenographer, she 
expected to pass the Civil Service examination. 
He said she would not have to ; he could have 
her appointed and reappointed. I said no more, 
but went to work. That evening I wrote the 
whole matter to the Chief of the Secret Service 
at Washington and requested him to prevent 
such injustice. 

It takes ten days to receive a reply to a letter 



at Panama 9 

sent to Washington and I calculated that it was 
possible that I could be saved in time. 

To further fit Mrs. Decker for filling ( ?) the 
position they accomplished what they had been 
planning for some time, namely, the hiring of a 
small apartment in which to go to housekeeping. 
I took pains to convince myself of this fact and 
also that she intended to do her own housework. 
How she expected to work in the house and the 
office at the same time I am unable to state, but 
from what I heard she intended to reach the 
office about 11 o'clock every morning, take down 
the depositions in long hand, which would mate- 
rially extend this profitable investigation — 
profitable to the investigator and his hysterical 
partner; his salary was $8.00 a day, including 
Sundays. They would lunch down town, then 
get dinner together at night and he wash the 
dishes and she wipe them. Meanwhile I awaited 
developments, feeling very nervous and upset and 
suffering with the severe headaches which always 
follow as a result of unpleasant excitement. I 
told a lady who boarded where I did about it 
and my hopes and fears. Her husband had 
worked for the government and I thought she 
might know how such a matter would be re- 
garded. She said it would all depend on how 
much influence he had at Washington, for in- 
fluence rather than justice was apt to prevail in 
government affairs. 

Mr. Decker is, according to his story, an able 
detective who has brought countless counter- 
feiters to justice. A desire came over me to 
outwit this great detective, so I marshaled my 



to Light on Dark Places 

nerve force, and looking my golden-haired supe- 
rior in the eye (he is a perfect blonde), said, 
"Mr. Decker, I have recommendations from gen- 
tlemen in the east, but only city references count 
in San Francisco, and if you are willing to write 
me a recommendation I think it will be of mate- 
rial assistance to me." He wrote one, copy of 
which I enclose: 

COPY. 

Room 210, Postoffice Building, 

San Francisco, California, 

October 4, 1905. 
To whom it may concern: 

To any one desiring a rapid and accurate 
stenographer I can cheerfully recommend Miss 
Mary A. Chatfield, who has been in my employ 
in this city during the investigation of naturali- 
zation frauds. Her work has included not only 
correspondence and records, but has covered a 
great deal of legal and technical work. 
Very truly yours, 

John H. Decker, , 
'Agent U. S. Secret Service. 

I thanked him and mailed it to the chief at 
Washington. I was surprised on the sixth day, 
because I had not looked for any word until 
the tenth, in finding the frigid atmosphere in the 
office changed to balmy summer time. Mrs. 
Decker had not spoken to me since my presump- 
tion in declining to leave immediately, but that 
day bade me good morning and offered me some 
candy. A telegram had been received from 



at Panama ii 

Washington, the result of which was Mrs. 
Decker stated that she intended to make a long 
planned trip to Honolulu. 

All this was very well, but the unpleasant af- 
fair threw me into such a nervous state I was 
afraid I could not go thru the Civil Service ex- 
amination and I shall be uneasy until I hear that 
I have passed, for I could hardly control my 
nerves enough to take it. I went to the drug 
store and got a tonic and called on the Power 
That Is to help me thru. I think I have passed, 
but, of course, do not know. If I have, and am 
appointed, it will be worth the struggle, because 
stenographers probably receive $150.00 a month, 
for that is what business houses pay when they 
take them to unhealthy climates ; ordinary clerks, 
$100.00 and $125.00, even when they have not 
had the experience I have had. I will risk yel- 
low fever, pernicious malaria, almost anything, 
to say nothing of the lesser calamity of everlast- 
ing rest, to get a position where I will receive 
a salary that will enable me to save some money. 

After the affair was settled I told some friends 
of mine about it. Every one shrieked with 
laughter regarding the hysterical Mrs. Decker; 
in fact, I feared they were going to have hys- 
terics over that item in the story. "Well," I 
said, "it must be hard for a man to have a wife 
he is compelled to humor so." Then one of 
them stopped laughing long enough to say, "Is 
it possible that a woman of your common sense 
actually believes that hysterics story?" "Why, 
yes," I answered, "I believed it." "If you do J 
am ashamed of you," she said, "unless Mrs, 



\2 Light on Dark Places 

Decker has money. Did you ever know a man 
that would put up with such nonsense from his 
wife unless she had money? That was the best 
excuse they could think of." "Upon reflection," 
I said, "I never did, and I do not think Mrs. D. 
has a cent except what he has." "And, more- 
over," she said, "if you had had sense to tell me 
about this when it happened you need not have 
suffered all these days of suspense, for I would 
have told you to go upstairs and tell the U. S. 
Attorney, to whom your yellow-headed superior 
is obliged to report, about it and he would not 
have permitted any such foolishness." If I had 
had as much sense as I might have had I would 
have lots more sense than I have. 

To return to the sailors, Mr. Coats and others 
wrote the president that there were large num- 
bers of aliens holding official positions on our 
ships thru fraudulent naturalization papers and 
requested an investigation. He granted their 
request, hence these tales of woe. Folks should 
not tell lies, but I have sympathy for the liars 
in this affair. % 

Mr. Coats would go to the docks or anywhere 
he could nab a victim and summon him in the 
name of the law to appear before Mr. Decker 
and have his naturalization papers investigated. 
The unhappy man was then put under oath so 
that he could be cast into prison for perjury if 
caught in any lies and instructed to answer every 
question asked him. 

The difference in the characteristics and physi- 
cal appearance of the men of the different 
nationalities was an interesting study. I have 



at Panama 13 

always admired yellow hair and blue eyes, but I 
do not care so much about them now because 
they are usually accompanied by straw-colored, 
expressionless eyebrows. If I had straw-colored 
eyebrows I would dye them. The Scandinavian 
sailors were mostly blonde, large, powerfully 
built men, whose general attitude in this investi- 
gation was childlike. They confessed their pa- 
pers were fraudulent before the questions were 
asked. Nearly all of them had wives and chil- 
dren dependent upon them and the confiscation 
of their naturalization papers meant immediate 
loss of their positions. The despair depicted 
upon their faces as their papers were taken from 
them I will always remember. On rare occa- 
sions these men were commanders or officers of 
large ships, but the great majority worked on 
small craft, such as coal barges, fishing smacks, 
etc., what we would summarize as a lot of dirty 
little boats. The compensation received, to our 
mind, not being worth taking from them. Their 
whole appearance was that of hard working men 
with hands coarsened by the toil of years, and 
even tho their papers had been fraudulently ob- 
tained, it seemed brutal robbery to take them 
from them. 

When an alien desires to become a citizen of 
the United States, according to law, he must have 
resided in a state or a possession of the United 
States or have worked on an American ship for 
five consecutive years ; then previous to receiving 
a full paper he must have taken out a "Declara- 
tion of Intention" to become a citizen, and tho 
he may have been a resident of the United States 



14 Light on Dark Places 

for any number of years he may not receive his 
full paper until two years subsequent to his de- 
claring his intention. Therefore, when this law 
was made many men who had worked on Ameri- 
can ships for many years were thrown out. To 
prevent this they took out declarations of inten- 
tion and full papers on the same day, omitted the 
"Declaration of Intention" altogether, bought pa- 
pers when they had been in the United States 
less than five years, etc. These violations of the 
law would have been impossible had the govern- 
ment officials who write the papers declined to 
have issued them, but these glittering beacons of 
dishonor made a daily business of selling these 
papers for as large a sum as they could extort; 
anywhere from $10.00 to $60.00. Ten was the 
usual sum and sometimes they had to be trusted 
for a part of that amount. I truly believe that 
had I been a clerk in the city hall I might have 
let many of these people have papers that were 
not entitled to them for the lawful fee, but it is 
unnecessary for me to state I would not have 
offered them for sale or taken bribes. These dis- 
honest officials deserve a long term in state's 
prison. 

There was one exception to the childlike de- 
meanor of the Scandinavians. You cannot real- 
ize the bullying attitude of the investigator un- 
less you have read some of Josiah Flynt's articles 
describing the questioning of prisoners at police 
stations. The exception refused to answer ques- 
tions, saying the investigator was not a proper 
person to demand the oath. He also stated that 
when he was a witness in a court of this country 



at Panama 15 

about some lumber, when under oath, a lawyer 
had so confused him with tricky questions that 
he had unintentionally made false statements. 
He, therefore, referred Mr. Decker to his lawyer. 
Mr. Decker, furious at his failure to bulldoze this 
man, vowed to run him down if he let all the 
rest escape. Therefore Mr. Coats was instructed 
to prowl indefatigably, continuously and everlast- 
ingly among all resorts of Scandinavians until 
he got this man's history from A to Z. He 
brought in numbers of King Oscar's men, all of 
whom were questioned and questioned again as 
to when the presumptuous one arrived in the 
United States; from whence, why, how, what 
for, etc., etc. Every one managed to appear 
ignorant of any details regarding him, but all 
made this positive statement, "He belongs to a 
noble family." Therefore, I understood the dif- 
ference in the demeanor of the man. Finally the 
indefatigable Mr. Coats was able to report the 
glorious information that he had found a man 
who told him that he knew the presumptuous one 
had not been in the country five years when he 
took out his naturalization papers and also se- 
cured a rich bit of knowledge by which he could 
be forced to give up his papers. In his early 
youth he had misbehaved in some way and his 
father had made him an allowance and sent him 
to Australia, where he went to work, and has 
been working ever since, on one ship and an- 
other, finally coming to the United States, where 
he has stayed a good many years. He had fallen 
in love with an American girl, whom he did not 
wish to know why he had left home, and for 



1 6 Light on Dark Places 

this reason they congratulated themselves they 
could crush the man. "And I tell you what it 
is," impressively drawled Mr. Coats, "a woman 
is the downfall of a man every time." "There 
is more truth than poetry in that statement," said 
my superior officer gazing fixedly at me. I made 
mental comments. The presumptuous one had 
declined to give the address of his boarding 
house. To ascertain it Mr. Coats dogged him 
when he escorted his fiancee from work to her 
home, then dogged him to his residence and next 
time he was summoned to appear had the pleas- 
ure of informing him where he lived. They 
worked their intimidation game successfully, and 
he, to avoid publicity, was hounded into giving 
up his papers. I am glad to state that he and 
many others were reinstated to citizenship by 
the judges, in court, on the ground that they had 
now been residents of the United States the re- 
quired number of years, or more, were desirable 
citizens of the United States, and in many cases, 
thru a misunderstanding regarding the necessity 
of working on American ships after declaring 
their intention, did not know that they were 
making false statements when taking out full 
papers. Thru this attitude of the judges much 
sorrow was made temporary, but much more was 
not, because there was no legal twist that could 
be allowed. Many approaching marriages were 
indefinitely postponed owing to the loss of the 
positions of the prospective bridegrooms. Sev- 
eral English officers were deprived of their pa- 
pers, but I did not feel so sorry for them for the 
reason that they were mostly men of means, be- 



at Panama 17 

ing commanders of large ships; tho, of course, it 
seemed hard. Many papers were straight, but 
so many men were thrown out that the owners 
of vessels were seriously inconvenienced. As the 
nautical training other countries demand of their 
officers is far more thoro than the laws of this 
country demand of the graduates of navigation 
schools, it seemed unwise, indeed reckless, to 
throw out so many men who thoroly understood 
their business. Since my insight into the train- 
ing of foreign and American sailors, exceptions, 
of course, not considered, I should prefer to put 
my goods (if I had any) or myself on a boat 
officered by men graduated from a foreign school 
of navigation. Principals of American naviga- 
tion schools offered and promised to secure 
fraudulent naturalization papers for foreign 
sailors ! 

Mr. Coats stated one morning that the next 
man summoned would be a Russian and I was 
interested to see a subject of the Czar. I ex- 
pected a miserable-looking object, trembling, 
afraid, and appearing as tho trampled under the 
iron heel of oppression, but a very dignified man 
entered whom I would have mistaken for an 
American. To the bullying questions of Mr. 
Decker he gave brief, comprehensive answers, 
but managed to give almost no information about 
himself, his witnesses, or anything else. There 
was a striking difference in the manner in which 
the questioned and the questioner acted his part. 

Witnesses are required to swear that they 
know that applicants have been in the country 
five years. On one occasion that was brought to 



1 8 Light on Dark Places 

light (I believe that there are hundreds that are 
still in the dark) a policeman was called by a 
clerk in the City Hall to swear that he had known 
that a man had been in the country five years 
when he had never seen him before in his life. 
For this service he received $5.00. I frequently 
heard that there are as many policemen as sailors 
holding positions under fraudulent naturalization, 
papers. 

Witnesses who swore falsely were also liable 
to punishment. Fortunately for them many were 
in parts unknown and others were dead. Most 
men tried to protect their witnesses, but being 
under oath, had to tell where they were if they 
knew. Mr. Decker's stock statement in trying to 
induce the men to tell about their witnesses was, 
"Now if you can tell me where your witnesses 
are this will help you," which, of course, was 
not true. One Scotchman made a very brief dis- 
position of that statement. "I care more about 
my witnesses than I do about myself," he said. 
"Further, if you continue to deprive me of my 
papers what benefit is it to you, for if I am idle 
too long what will prevent myself and my family 
from becoming a public charge?" He bears the 
name of one of Scotland's most honored kings 
and conducted himself as worthy to do so. 

Most of the sailors did not understand Eng- 
lish perfectly and requested that confusing ques- 
tions be not asked them because they would not 
know whether they were telling the exact truth 
or not. I am sure one man, and I think others, 
were scared into giving up papers legally ob- 
tained because they were informed that wit- 



at Panama 19 

nesses must not be casual acquaintances, but per- 
sons who knew them well. This one about whom 
I am positive had for one of his witnesses an 
officer on board the ship on which he had been 
a common sailor and he was frightened into giv- 
ing up his papers because he thought he should 
have known this witness intimately, which was 
impossible between an officer and a common 
sailor. His papers were confiscated with 
righteous (?) indignation and he left in despair. 
His witness heard of it and lost no time coming 
forward and confirming his oath that he knew 
that the man had been in the country five years 
when he took out his papers and insisting that 
they be returned to him. 

Mr. Coats informed me one day that I could 
not be from New England, as I stated, because 
I did not talk thru my nose. I enlightened him 
as to the fact that all New Englanders do not talk 
thru their noses. His conversation was often 
very amusing. He is a descendant of one of 
the early settlers of Rhode Island. He said he 
hated Englishmen. I asked him why, but he did 
not know, he guessed it must be because they 
tried to whip the United States. He said he 
could not see how American women could marry 
Englishmen, that when Lord and Lady Randolph 
Churchill were traveling on the Pacific every- 
thing that was best on the ship in the way of 
compasses, etc., Lord Randolph claimed as the 
invention of some Englishman. He contradicted 
him and said they were invented by Americans 
whether it was true or not. He told me he said 
to Lady R. C, "You ought to be ashamed of 



20 Light on Dark Places 

yourself, an American woman, to have married 
an Englishman. He don't know anything. You 
have learned him all he knows." "What did she 
say?" said I. He said she looked at him, and 
her eyes kept growing bigger and bigger, as tho 
they would come out of her head, and she finally 
said, "Why, Mr. Coats, you are the strangest 
man I ever met." "But," he added, "she was a 
bright woman tho, if she did marry an English- 
man." 

Mr. Decker decided to resign after being in- 
formed that he could not supplant me with his 
wife and sent his resignation to Washington to 
take effect as soon as he could be relieved. He 
seemed much depressed, and mean as he was, I 
felt sorry for him. Mrs. Decker did not take 
the contemplated trip to Honolulu and in the 
absence of her husband one afternoon gave vent 
to her fury by ranting and tearing about two 
hours in regard to the undisciplined monstros- 
ities American women in general were. Her re- 
marks were addressed to the astonished Mr. 
Coats, who sat listening, speechless, for some 
time, his eyes growing wider and wider, as Lady 
Randolph Churchill's did. He finally gasped, 
"Why, Mrs. Decker ! Why, Mrs. Decker ! Don't 
you know that women are treated better in 
America than in any other country in the world? 
Why, in some countries men make women work 
in the field like oxen." "That is good for them," 
she shrieked. "That is what American women 
need, they know altogether too much, and they 
have gotten so that nobody can do anything with 
them," etc., etc. Mr. Coats was the picture of 



at Panama 21 

complete amazement. I presume he thought that 
for some inscrutable reason she was lapsing into 
one of those "hysterical fits." Her conversation 
immediately reminded me of an article in similar 
vein published by Professor Harry Thurston 
Peck, of Columbia University, in an old Cosmo- 
politan. Shortly after reading that startling 
composition I saw him for the first time in my 
life. One of the professors of engineering, for 
whom I worked, handed me a ten dollar bill one 
afternoon with instructions to bring him a hun- 
dred stamps as soon as possible. I went to the 
university postofnce for them, but the postmis- 
tress could not change the bill. A ten dollar bill 
is not always an easy thing to get changed in a 
university and I was wondering which way to 
turn when a voice behind me said, "I will change 
it." I immediately recognized Professor Peck 
from his photographs and could hardly choke 
back a refusal to accept even so small a favor, 
but, remembering my professor was in a hurry 
for the stamps, I vouchsafed a freezing thank 
you and took the change. The terrified post- 
mistress fell all over herself expressing her grati- 
tude, saying, "Thank you, Professor Peck, thank 
you, Professor Peck, thank you so much, Pro- 
fessor Peck." I departed wishing I had refused 
it. When I delivered the stamps to the owner I 
relieved my feelings by asking him if he had 
read the article, and repeated parts of it, but no 
answer was vouchsafed but hearty laughter, and 
the more I told him the more he laughed. I did 
not even get a word of approbation when I in- 
formed him that it was only to return sooner that 



22' Light on Dark Places 

I had taken the change. Some people have no 
sense of gratitude. By the way, the men of the 
United States have not yet issued that short, 
sharp, emphatic mandate taking back the priv- 
ileges granted to women, neither have I met any 
fathers who do not care about their daughters. 

There is another woman hater at Columbia 
University — Professor Brander Matthews. He 
is considered such an authority on English litera- 
ture that women teachers used to come from all 
parts of the United States during the summer 
sessions to attend his lectures, but he would not 
allow them in his room. Neither will Professor 
Peck. The Hon. James Bryce, when discussing 
co-education, in his book, "The American Com- 
monwealth," says he had inquired the reason why 
some men object to it, and the only reason that 
was ever given him was it is very unpleasant to 
other men to see men who were not well thought 
of by them sometimes very popular with the 
women students. I, as well as the Hon. James 
Bryce, have wondered and inquired why any ob- 
jection could be made to co-education. I thought 
a good deal about it when I worked at Columbia 
University because one of the men students who 
boarded where I did was very bitter on the sub- 
ject, but would never give his reason, and, as he 
was a noted ladies' man, his attitude on this 
question puzzled me greatly. I happened to men- 
tion the matter to a lady teacher who was study- 
ing at the summer school and she said, "Is it 
possible that a woman of your common sense 
cannot understand the reason?" I meekly ad- 
mitted that I had never understood. And she 



at Panama 23 

said, "Lots of men who go to college bum 
around all night. Almost every woman studies 
as hard as she can, and it raises the standard of 
the class so high that men who want to dissipate 
cannot keep up with it. Is not this man you re- 
fer to one of this sort?" The people who roomed 
under him were continually complaining that he 
came in every night at 2 o'clock in the morning, 
and he once said himself that he was suspended 
from the University of Chicago "for conduct un- 
becoming a student of a co-educational institu- 
tion." It seems to me the reason given the Hon. 
James Bryce is a lame excuse, while the other 
stands on Chicago feet. What do you think? 

This reminds me of a conversation I once had 
with a politician in regard to woman suffrage. 
"Yes," he said, "women ought to have the priv- 
ilege of voting, but they never will, for the sa- 
loon-keepers would not allow it; saloon-keepers 
control politics, and the first thing women would 
do, whether they believed in total abstinence or 
in temperance, would be to abolish the saloons." 
I was astonished to hear such plain truths — both 
disgraceful and honorable — and I emphatically 
endorsed his statement, that the first thing 
women in general would do would be to abolish 
saloons. If people wish to drink let them, but in 
places where drunkenness would not be allowed, 
and so avoid the resulting evils of crime, disease, 
poverty and disgrace. Consider the appalling 
record of crime which is due to drunkenness! 

I heard that people were rushing from Pan- 
ama in such numbers there were not ships 
enough to carry them away, that they were go- 



24 Light on Dark Places 

ing steerage, and every available place was filled 
with terror-stricken people fleeing from yellow 
fever. I have no fear of any contagious disease, 
but a friend of mine called on purpose to tell me 
she had seen a stenographer just from Panama 
and he said it was no place for anybody but 
bluffers, disease entirely out of the question; 
that even tho there is such a necessity for peo- 
ple to do the work, there is no inducement for 
good workmen to stay. Inexperienced, unquali- 
fied people are placed in the best positions and 
drawing the best salaries; that while you are 
given quarters you have to pay so much for food 
you practically pay for your room. Consider- 
ing special request was made for stenographers 
to go to Panama when I took the Civil Service 
examination this story does not seem probable. 
I asked my friend if she did not think the young 
man might have been discharged for drinking 
and she said, "No, indeed," she had known him 
a long time and he was not that sort of a man. 
Being worried by this story, I wrote again and 
asked the chief of the secret service if I could 
count on having my time extended a little over 
two months. I thought it would be wise to have 
a little more money if I could not work at Pan- 
ama. He telegraphed that he was not interested 
in seeing that I was retained longer, and also 
sent word to Mr. Decker that acceptance of his 
resignation was withdrawn. I do not know the 
cause of this change. 

I shall write you all about my trip down this 
coast before I leave the ship because I shall try 
to work in Panama and I may get sick and not 



at Panama 25 

be able to write when there. I enclose photo- 
graph I had taken before I left for a remem- 
brance for my cousins and for you if you never 
see the original again. 

One morning when I came to the office I 
found a new variety on tenter hooks — an edu- 
cated Irishman. His cultured speech condemned 
him in Mr. Coats' eyes as being one of those 
hated Englishmen. He seemed to be in a state 
of suppressed fury for which I did not blame 
him, for, aside from the inquisitive, impertinent 
questions asked he does not command an Ameri- 
can ship, but one of the Japanese steamers run- 
ning between the Orient and California. He 
stated that he was an Irishman, his father being 
Irish, but he was born in Africa. His name is 
Henry Hastings Gone. When asked if he was 
married he gruffly answered, "No." As I recol- 
lect, the flaw in his papers was, that after de- 
claring his intention he had not worked on 
American ships. After he had gone Mr. Coats 
said, "Another Englishman! How I hate them! 
And did you hear the lies he told, saying he was 
an Irishman ?" "Why," I said, "he certainly is 
an Irishman." "I know an Englishman when I 
hear one talk, he said he was an Irishman because 
he likes to lie. He lied, too, when he said he 
wasn't married. He has got two wives, one is a 
Japanese and the other is an American. The 
American is suing him for a divorce now and it's 
in all this morning's papers," replied Mr. Coats. 
This story was in the papers and the American 
wife, tho disclaiming any desire to injure the 
unhappy captain, was suing for freedom because 



26 Light on Dark Places 

she had found that previous to marrying her he 
had a Japanese wife in Yokohoma. Do you 
blame him for curtly denying that he was mar- 
ried under the circumstances? Had he said yes 
he would have been questioned as to when and 
where, to whom, etc. The next day the Japanese 
steamer sailed. "Henry Hastings Gone," said 
Mr. Coats, "I seen him when he went. He gave 
me an awful sharp look."* 

I decided to write the chief of the secret serv- 
ice some things in regard to the way the investi- 
gation was being conducted, for if properly done 
it was hard enough, surely, but the injustice prac- 
ticed was a disgrace to our government. 

The statute of limitation prohibits imprisoning 
a man for perjury unless committed within the 
last five years. Mr. Decker, I suppose, wishing 
to distinguish himself by reporting arrests, 
would, in addition to taking a sailor's papers 
away, which meant loss of position and means 
of support for his family, arrest him for perjury 
if he was not protected by the statute of limita- 
tion; while others equally guilty were only de- 
prived of their papers. He said more than once 
he was ashamed when he took away their papers, 
especially when he looked at their hands, which 
showed how hard they worked. 

There was need for this investigation, but bet- 
ter judgment should have been used. One day 
a bogus naturalization paper was brought in by 
a Portugese lady, which had been sold to a 

*Since this letter was written the naturaliza- 
tion laws have been changed. 



at Panama 27 

friend of hers,; as he wished to visit Portugal and 
not be compelled to remain and serve in the 
Portugese Army. It was made out on a form 
exactly like those issued by the government and 
with an exact copy of the seal of the United 
States in the corner. This unearthed an exten- 
sive business in this line carried on by Portugese 
residents in San Francisco, but it would not have 
been discovered if this paper had not been 
brought in. 

One captain of a small vessel after surrender- 
ing his paper and license called Mr. Decker out 
into the hall and said (he told us when he re- 
turned), "I see you are a Mason. I have a wife 
and four children to support; for God's sake 
help me, if you can, to get my position back." It 
was no harder for this man than for many others. 

I wrote the chief about the unjust discrimina- 
tion in making arrests, not knowing then I might 
just as well have told the U. S. Attorney. His 
letter of acknowledgment is as follows : 

"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your let- 
ter of October 24th, and while I appreciate your 
sympathy with the holders of fraudulent natural- 
ization papers, the question as to the wisdom of 
the law which they have violated is not one which 
is within my province to discuss ; nor is the U. S. 
Attorney, who is in immediate charge of the 
investigation, subject to my control or open to 
official direction by me." 

I must tell you of another man, an English- 
man, who was married in Yokohoma, and sup- 



23 Light on Dark Places 

posing himself an American citizen, had gone to 
the U. S. Consul to get his marriage license. 
He had served on foreign ships after declaring 
his intention, which was the flaw in his papers. 
If declared not to have been a citizen of the 
United States at the time of his marriage it 
made both his marriage and his child illegal and 
a more distressed man could not have been found. 
The judges came to his rescue, however, and de- 
clared the action of the U. S. Consul in Yoko- 
hama in regarding him an American citizen law- 
ful. Would it not have been horrible if they 
had not? 

As I looked at those great, strong sailors, ap- 
parently almost as strong as horses, questioned 
by a man of very mediocre intellect, his manner 
of questioning plainly showing it; sometimes 
making entirely false statements regarding the 
naturalization laws thru his own imperfect 
knowledge of them, I saw of what little avail 
physical strength is without corresponding in- 
tellect. So many times those men might have 
given replies that would have made their ques- 
tioner want to hide his head, but in almost every 
case they wilted with the exception of the 
Scotchman named Bruce and the Russian. Two 
of them tried lying without scruple. I told my 
uncle about it, but he did not feel as sorry for 
the men as I did, or would not admit it, stub- 
bornly saying, "If American citizenship is to be 
respected the law must be enforced/* 

It seems to me the first thing that should be 
done would be to punish the dishonest officials of 
the United States who sold these papers for any 



at Panama 29 

sum they could extort and let the miserable aliens 
go. Really, to me, it seems that these officials 
are guilty of treason. During one investigation 
it transpired that an Englishman bought a cer- 
tificate of American citizenship for $40 for a 
joke, framed it and carried it home to display as 
evidence of the lack of honor in which citizen- 
ship of the United States is regarded. 

It seems to me that the greatest trouble of 
our country is "Everybody's business is nobody's 
business," and that the presidential term should 
be extended to at least ten years to give a man 
a chance to be the head of this vast country long 
enough to intelligently handle its extensive busi- 
ness and remove any temptation to be intimidated 
by political rascals holding out the inducement of 
re-election by prohibiting it. I had only a peep 
into the study of economics, but, as I recollect, 
Switzerland has the best government in the 
world, tho from some things I have heard lately 
it would seem New Zealand's is best. 

I have discovered that an Englishman is the 
last man to disown his country for citizenship in 
another. They are as proud of being British 
subjects as an American is of being President of 
the United States. If you tell one that the 
United States has a better government than 
Great Britain he will smile in a way that indicates 
he thinks you are so lacking in reasoning power 
that it would be useless to discuss the subject 
with you. There is an Englishman on board 
who spends a good share of his time singing 
"Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Brit- 
ons never will be slaves." He seems to particu- 



30 Light on Dark Places 

larly aggravate the German doctor, who has be- 
come a citizen of the United States, and he had 
the whole crew on the warpath the other day by 
telling them they were all "turncoats and cow- 
ards" for forswearing their countries for mer- 
cenary reasons. They were so mad I think his 
words struck home. He said he was asked to 
become a citizen of the United States and was 
told that it would be to his advantage in a busi- 
ness way, but he declined to sell his birthright 
for a mess of pottage. The doctor told me he 
thought he was a very disagreeable man. I said 
I thought he was perfectly right. "Every native 
American feels the same way. Do you suppose 
that anybody belonging to the old families of the 
United States would become a citizen of another 
country?" He looked as tho he considered me 
a very disagreeable woman and said scornfully, 
"Old families in the United States ! You do not 
know what old families are in the United States." 
I told him he had better study the history of the 
United States. I asked him why Englishmen 
were often so much disliked. He said ever since 
the reign of Elizabeth, England had gone so far 
ahead of other countries, Englishmen considered 
themselves better than anybody else. 

The doctor is stout enough to make two men 
of good size and is the target for all the jokers 
on board. When he goes to his stateroom to take 
a nap they wait until he has fallen asleep, then 
close the door and windows and he wakes up al- 
most suffocated. One day he fell asleep on deck 
and some one tied a little woolly sheep belonging 
to a child on board to his chair. When he awoke 



at Panama 31 

and saw the little sheep facing him he looked at 
the smiling audience and said, "Cruelty! depriv- 
ing that little child of its play toy." 

One of the boastful expressions of English- 
men, according to Mr. Coats (and I think he out- 
Englished the English with the expression he 
gave it) is, "Once an Englishman always an 
Englishman." He said that a Canadian working 
in San Francisco married an American, then 
took her to Canada so that the baby would be 
born a British subject. That even when he went 
to the British Consul to try and learn things 
about British subjects who had taken out citizen- 
ship papers in the U. S. the consul would not 
tell him what he wanted to know. 

Miss Madison asked me to allow her to tell a 
friend of the U. S. Attorney about the unjust 
discrimination in jailing men because, were he 
cognizant of it, he would not allow it. I con- 
sented, but hoped I would be out of town before 
she did. The assistant attorneys asked several 
times for me to come up and help out on their 
stenographic work, but Mr. Decker said I could 
not be spared. I would like to have gone up so 
that I could have had an opportunity to speak 
to the attorneys. The last day of my two months 
came and, tho I would have to remain a week 
longer before the boat sailed, I was thankful in 
a way to be out of the place. 

I have tried to drop this subject several times, 
but keep on thinking of another incident I wish 
to tell you of and hope you are interested, and not 
wishing I would drop the subject and tell about 
the trip down the coast « 



32 Light on Dark Places 

This is somewhat amusing. A giant was one 
day brought in to be questioned, and whether he 
was stupid, as he claimed to be, or cleverer than 
the rest I do not know. Any way he managed 
to escape with his liberty and his naturalization 
paper. He certainly earned them. He stated 
that he could not answer questions relating to 
years back for he had been hit on the head about 
two years ago by a falling spar on a ship in the 
"Shina" Sea. This story was condemned as a 
falsehood, but he requested inspection of the 
scar on the back of his head. He was hand- 
cuffed to scare him and meekly submitted for a 
time, but finally requested that the handcuffs be 
removed as they were so small his wrists were 
swelling. Mr. D. removed them, then having to 
go out on business, laid a revolver beside me, 
saying, "If this man attempts to go out before I 
return shoot him." I said, "yes," but I do not 
know how to use a revolver, neither did I see 
why the man should be talked to in this way, so 
when Mr. D. had gone I turned around and 
smiled, saying, "Have you the right time, the 
office clock is almost always wrong." After 
lunch he was again put thru a long series of 
questions without getting him to condemn him- 
self, but Mr. D. would not give him his paper, 
but told him to return next day. The paper had 
been folded a long time and was torn in all the 
creases. Next day Mr. Decker again tried to 
bully him into making damaging admissions, 
saying, "Come now, you know your paper is not 
right and you are going to tell me all about it." 
But he said, "There is nothing wrong about my 



at Panama 33 

paper except that it is dirty and torn because I 
nave not taken good care of it." He then went 
down to one of the newspaper offices and told 
them all about being handcuffed, etc., but Mr. 
Decker heard of it and persuaded them not to 
publish it. 

As I sat at my typewriter the last morning I 
heard, but at first did not heed, a very earnest 
conversation between Mr. Decker and Mr. Coats 
to this effect: "Of course, it is very unjust, but 
we want to make some arrests. But who can 
be interested enough in these sailors to have 
sent word to Washington? We must find that 
out. I did not know anybody thought enough 
about them to care." I began to heed. Their 
further conversation revealed that before rising 
that morning the U. S. Attorney had received a 
telegram from the attorney general condemning 
the unjust discriminations made in imprisoning 
men for perjury. I decided there was nothing 
for me to do, if asked, but to say, "Yes, I wrote 
the chief, for the way this investigation is being 
conducted is a disgrace to our government." 
After Mr. Coats left I asked Mr. Decker if he 
still wished my resignation and said that I was 
very sorry that there had been unpleasantness, 
but he certainly could not blame me for defend- 
ing myself as I had done. He admitted that he 
did not, but requested the resignation. 

Steamship "Peru." 
Now to describe the voyage. The S. S. 
"Peru" is the largest ship of the Pacific Mail 
Line piying between 'Frisco and the Isthmus. 



34 Light on Dark Places 

Some of my fellow-passengers are a young lady 
who is going to visit her brother who has been 
in business in Mexico five years; the U. S. Con- 
sul at Acapulco, returning from his vacation ; an 
English engineer, going to Peru, who spends 
most of his time pacing the decks ; Mr. and 
Mrs. Wall, who are so devoted to each other that 
a little lady from Guatemala, whose knowledge of 
English is limited, told me she thought they were 
on their moonlight; a brother and sister, resi- 
dents of Seattle, reported very rich, who put on 
many airs and hardly speak to any one but each 
other, so presume their wealth is recently ac- 
quired. The young man is so polite to his sister 
some of the men think they are a bridal couple 
traveling as brother and sister to escape detec- 
tion. I do not think so. There are more Guate- 
malans, a naturalist from a museum in the 
United States sent out to gather monkeys and 
the like; a man from New York going to join 
his brother, who is in business in Guatemala; a 
lady with her grandson, who travels back and 
forth frequently. Her husband keeps a hotel in 
Mazatlan and she goes up and buys goods for 
the feeding of the guests — so-called. I think 
that is one of life's little mysteries; calling peo- 
ple who pay their board guests. This lady is 
bringing down a live cow on this trip, as they 
do not milk Mexican cows, I understand. 

I have always had romantic ideas regarding 
Lower California, believing it to be a rich and 
fertile country, unexplored and holding rich re- 
wards for those who would settle there, but the 



at Panama 35 

captain says it is more of a sandbar than any- 
thing else. 

We will be anchored off the City of Guate- 
mala a week loading coffee. So remember if 
you ever want to travel rapidly on this coast do 
not take a big steamer because it takes so much 
time to load and unload it. 

I have acquired much interesting information 
about the stuffing of animals from the naturalist 
and will tell you about it when I see you. 
1 There are many steerage passengers. They 
dance on the deck at night and sing love songs 
in Spanish. Steerage passage between New 
York and 'Frisco is cheap and many travel back 
and forth repeatedly. It is a good way to rest 
and kill time — if you like steerage accommoda- 
tions. Deliver me ; I have inspected the steerage 
on one or two ships. A young Guatemalan who 
has been educated and studied dentistry in San 
Francisco is returning home to be a dentist. 
Dentists are scarce in Central America. There 
is also an American dentist aboard who hopes to 
reap a golden harvest at Mazatlan. We were all 
very curious to see this city, which we reached 
November 13th. You should have seen the land- 
ing of the cow. It was certainly funny. She 
was in a wooden cage and numbers of little dark- 
skinned Mexicans picked up cage, cow and all 
and waded ashore. There must have been a 
hundred peons carrying that cow. These peo- 
ple are practically slaves because until the last 
few years people were imprisoned for debt and 
were never able to struggle owt of it. About 
five years ago the President of Mexico abolished 



36 Light on Dark Places 

the law allowing imprisonment for debt, but they 
say most of the peons do not know it and still 
think they are bound to their creditors. I ex- 
pected a picturesque, rich-looking city with grand 
old cathedrals and handsome dwellings, with a 
romantic enchantment hanging over it ; our cities 
losers by comparison. I remember once seeing 
a man's picture entitled "The Ideal and the 
Actual." Great contrasts are they not, ideals and 
actuals? The consul invited us to accept him 
as captain of our party and we were delighted to 
do so. There was no pier and we had to land 
in boats belonging to the steamer, for which priv- 
ilege we were obliged to pay 50 cents. The con- 
sul, the naturalist, Mr. and Mrs. Wall, Miss 
Long, Mr. Green and myself went ashore in the 
same boat. The English engineer and his friend 
( ?) the doctor in another boat. Shades of 
Henry Bergh and every one else of like mind 
arise and march this way without delay. O, the 
poor, miserable, little donkeys, covered with 
great raw sores, dragging heavy carts; whipped 
along when they were going faster than they 
could already! Such sights were constantly be- 
fore us. With such sores visible what must there 
have been under collars and harnesses! The 
cruelty in this line is almost inconceivable to us. 
Our ears were greeted with an incessant hissing 
sound. I could not imagine what it was, but the 
consul and the naturalist showed me two horses 
hitched to a carriage, much too heavy for them, 
which their driver was urging them to pull out 
of a stable door. Hissing is the Spanish-Ameri- 
can way of urging an animal. O, those horses! 



at Panama 37 

._ L .A 

Poor little miserable, half- fed-looking creatures! 
Their coats looked moldy, no other word de- 
scribes them. Later we met a cart drawn by a 
small donkey with one entire hind leg a running 
sore. I seriously considered offering the owner 
of the donkey $25.00 to shoot it. If I were sure 
of work as soon as I get to Panama I would 
have done so. I never felt so sorry about being 
poor in my life as I did then. Those animals 
haunt me. If I were rich I would start through 
Mexico buying and killing about every other 
animal I saw. 

The streets of Mazatlan are narrow and dirty 
and the buildings small and mean. We caught a 
glimpse of one beautiful garden (thru the 
entrance) behind a high plastered wall. The 
consul took us with him when he went to pay 
his respects at the U. S. Consulate at Mazatlan. 
He bade us look up and rejoice as we saw the 
Stars and Stripes floating over it. The consul 
at Mazatlan and his two daughters entertained us 
charmingly and it will always be a pleasure to 
remember them. They said Mrs. Diaz, the presi- 
dent's wife, is trying to prevent the cruelty to 
animals and they think she has accomplished 
something in the City of Mexico. When I vis- 
ited the Yosemite I heard that Mrs. Fiske, the 
actress, is pushing this movement in Mexico. 
Then we visited shops and bought souvenir pos- 
tal cards, for which we were asked twice as much 
as in the United States. As soon as they see 
people from the U. S. up fly the prices. The 
consul, our fellow-traveler, took us all to dinner 
at the largest hotel. We protested, but he in- 



38 Light on Dark Places 

sisted. The hotel is kept by a Frenchman, who 
was not at home, having gone to some boat to 
meet his mother. The dinner was good and we 
all enjoyed the change. The little coffee spoons 
.were made of solid, shining brass. They looked 
odd to us because they were neither silver nor 
gold and Mrs. Wall wanted one for a souvenir, 
so she asked the landlady if she would sell one. 
She replied she would be very glad to please her, 
but was afraid to do so without her husband's 
permission ; if we would wait until he came back 
we could ask him and she felt sure that he would 
have no objection. Imagine being afraid to sell 
an old brass spoon without asking your husband ! 
Some wives do not have hysterical fits ! This 
filled me with a great desire to steal the spoon 
and I think I would have done so if I had not 
been afraid the poor woman would get a beating. 
We visited the market, the church, the school and 
several stores. 

We reached Manzanillo November 15th about 
6 A. M. and there we lost Miss Long. Her 
brother, a railroad contractor, came for her and 
took her to his camp. Mr. and Mrs. Wall also 
left us then as they preferred to travel thru 
Mexico rather than continue to Panama. 

I was surprised to learn that the Roman Catho- 
lic religion is not supported by the Mexican gov- 
ernment. A former president opposed it as 
valiantly as Martin Luther. He caused all the 
monasteries and ecclesiastical property to be ap- 
propriated by the state, for the reason that when 
a monastery was burned the bodies of so many 
young girls were found, the victims of the 



at Panama 39 

priests, that he said, "This must not be," and 
forthwith took drastic measures to prevent such 
outrages. 

I have another important bit of information to 
impart. I have discovered why King Edward 
snubs William Waldorf Astor. Conversation 
with the consul drifted this way one day and I 
asked him why. He called on the English engi- 
neer, who said, "For William Waldorf Astor's 
own good King Edward snubs William Waldorf 
Astor. William Waldorf Astor has too much 
cheek and too much side." 

I have been playing cards with some of the 
people from Guatemala. When one of the gen- 
tlemen loses he always exclaims "Caramba!" 
Nobody seems to be able to give me an exact 
translation, but it is something to the effect of 
"I lose!" My opinion is the English equivalent 
is "Darn it!" When his king took the trick he 
exclaimed as he laid it down, "El rey!" with the 
greatest satisfaction. 

I was entertaining a circle of listeners this 
morning which gradually increased, and had just 
said, "I have met few Texans, but every man I 
have seen has ears that stand forward and I have 
begun to wonder if that is a characteristic of all 
men from Texas." Some one said, "Yes, our 
ears all stand forward." I looked up and saw 
a six footer with prominent ears and felt rather 
embarrassed as you may imagine. Fortunately, 
he was not mad, but began to brag about Texas, 
saying the United States is safe along the Mexi- 
can border and the Gulf coast because Texas is 
there, that Texas is one-half of the United States, 



4© Light on Dark Places 

the other states the other half. I told him to 
come up to New England and he would change 
his mind. 

Another Texan I met boarded where I did in 
New Haven, which was favored by his presence, 
as he attended the Yale Law School. He had 
wild, chrysanthemum hair and prominent ears. I 
have not the remotest idea what his name was, 
for every one called him Texas. He sat gazing 
at me one day at dinner, finally breaking out 
with, "Miss Chatfield, did you ever love a man 
ri^ht hard?" "Why," said I, "what do you 
mean?" "Did you ever feel like a sick kitten 
hugging up tew a hot brick?" he inquired, amid 
shouts of laughter from the other folks at the 
table. This was only one of his many wonderful 
remarks. 

The naturalist asked me the day we went to 
Mazatlan what state I thought he was from. I 
immediately replied "Indiana." He told me I 
was wrong, that ke was from New York. I 
said, "You don't look it." He said, "I am." 
Later when dining at the French Hotel he said, 
"You are a good guesser, I am from Indiana. 
What made you think so?" I said, "I used to 
know a lady from Indiana and a gentleman from 
Ohio, and the first time I looked at you I thought 
of both of them, tho you look and act like neither 
one of them." He insisted that was feminine in- 
tuition and I insisted it was logic. 

We reached Acapulco, Mexico, November 16th 
at 3 P. M., and the consul invited us all to visit 
his consulate. Acapulco is not nearly as large 
as Mazatlan. As we approached the consulate 



at Panama 41 

we were met by a very happy-looking small pig, 
which our host said was a member of the street 
cleaning department; by which he meant that, 
after the Spanish-American custom, animals are 
depended upon to eat up the rubbish thrown in 
the streets. They say that at Panama this duty 
is delegated to turkey buzzards. A friend of 
the consul showed me around the city, thru the 
market, etc. On the porch of one of the dwell- 
ings was tied a small monkey, who took great 
pleasure in posing before the crowd in various 
attitudes and encircled his neck with a small 
switch with all the affectation of a vain person 
trying on something new. There was also a lit- 
tle fox terrier at this house who came out and 
watched the crowd. I enjoyed my trip ashore 
very much. 

We arrived at San Jose de Guatemala Novem- 
ber 20th. Several of the passengers leave us 
there; others will visit the city while the boat is 
at anchor. The folks who live at Guatemala give 
glowing accounts of their city and say it is well 
worth a visit. I want to, but the railroad fare is 
considerable and there is no place to board but 
the hotel, which costs $4.00 a day gold. The 
city of Guatemala is several miles from the coast, 
up in the mountains. It is the custom in these 
tropical countries to locate the cities in the in- 
terior, among the mountains, because it is 
healthier. 

I have enjoyed my trip for everything has 
been new and interesting and my fare is paid, 
but now the end is not far distant and I am be- 
ginning to have that scared and desolate feeling 



42 Light on Dark Places 

which comes over one when looking for a posi- 
tion among strangers. But, "Rocked in the 
cradle of the deep I lay me down in peace to 
sleep. I know Thou wilt not slight my call, 
for Thou dost mark the sparrow's fall, and calm 
and peaceful is my sleep, rocked in the cradle of 
the deep !" It is not the ocean that frightens me. 
The terrible deep to me is the business world. 

The captain and other officers of the ship are 
very nice to the passengers, but the table is very 
£>oor. The larger part of the way between 
'Frisco and Panama there is no line but this, 
which is the reason of the poor table. Most of 
us, however, do not have to growl because the 
Englishman saves us that trouble, in keeping with 
the British lion's reputation, when things are not 
what they should be. His remarks sometimes are 
very funny. I was laughing about it once to a 
Scotchman on board and he said Scotchmen feel 
the same way, but they are more "two faced" 
than Englishmen and do not talk as much. A 
family of children and their mother came aboard 
at Guatemala who are going to join the father 
on the Isthmus. He is an Irishman and the 
mother is a Spanish-American. The engineer, 
like all English people, thinks children should be 
very carefully brought up. He told one of the 
little girls as she passed us on the deck one even- 
ing that it was too late for her to be out, she 
ought to have been in bed long ago. The child 
said nothing. I said, "Mr. Henry, if that child 
had been an American she would have turned 
and looked at you with scorn when you told her 
she ought to be in bed." "Wouldn't have sat 



at Panama 43 

down again for a week, not with any comfort, if 
she had," he growled, but I do not think he is as 
terrible as he pretends to be. 

I saw two wonderful landscape views when 
anchored off Guatemala, of which I hope to get 
pictures. There are two views, yet there is only 
one. Back of the city of Guatemala are two 
enormous volcanoes whose summits seem to 
pierce the sky. One is named Agua (Water), 
the other Fuego (Fire). I forgot whether these 
are extinct or slumbering volcanoes, but my im- 
pression is they are slumbering, therefore liable 
to have an eruption any time. The remarkable 
feature of this scene is that a part of the day 
these mountains are plainly visible and at other 
times completely invisible, while the rest of the 
landscape remains the same. You can imagine 
my surprise the first time I went to look for my 
grand volcanoes, which are such majestic fea- 
tures of this scene, and found them absolutely 
gone. At certain times they are obscured by 
clouds. One of the passengers snapped this 
scene when the volcanoes were visible and when 
invisible and promised me some of the pictures 
when developed. One night we passed a burn- 
ing volcano and distinctly saw the red hot lava 
pouring down its sides. 

It is very lonesome now that so many of the 
passengers have left us. They do not have piers 
in these countries and passengers and freight are 
carried to and from the steamers in boats. Every 
one leaving at this port was seated in a large 
basket on the deck of the steamer and lowered 



44 Light on Dark Places 

into the boat, which carried them and their bag- 
gage to the shore. 

The officers of the ship say they give me one 
day in Panama, then I will be glad to cross the 
Isthmus to Colon and take passage for New 
York. Colon is worse than Panama. 

The little lady from Guatemala bade me a 
very sweet good-by, saying, "All success and 
happiness is what I wish for you." It seems so 
incongruous that people of the tropics possessing 
such sweet manners can look with such indiffer- 
ence on such cruelty to animals. We are. due at 
Acajutla, La Libertad and San Juan November 
25th, 26th and 27th, respectively, and at Panama 
November 30, 1905. I shall not mail this letter 
until I have landed, so that you may know I am 
on the Isthmus and not lost on the Pacific. It 
may be a month or more before I write again; 
it will all depend on how things go with me. 
Yours hopefully. 

Panama, R. P., 
January 21, 1906. 

I could not write before, but I have taken notes 
every day about things of interest. The "Peru" 
anchored in sight of Ancon on the morning of 
November 30th, but could not go to the dock until 
5 P. M. because we were obliged to wait until 
another ship left. 

As soon as the ship reached the dock printed 
notices, distributed by the Department of Sani- 
tation, were presented to everybody warning us 
to avoid the bites of female mosquitoes. The 
males, it seems, do not care for blood — vegetari- 
ans, I presume. 



at Panama 45 

The dock is at La Boca (The Mouth), I think, 
of the canal. The engineer who came aboard to 
meet his family, said there was plenty of work in 
the Zone for everybody. We left the ship and 
boarded the train for Panama. All the hotels 
were miserable, we had been told on the boat, 
and all charged a very high price for their 
wretched accommodations. The best, the Central, 
charged $4.00 gold per day, $8.00 Panamanian. 
1 he native money is rated one-half value of ours. 
We decided to try the New York, as that had 
been recommended as just as good and cheaper. 
It was dark when we reached Panama, but the 
dim light showed a town similar to those of the 
Mexican country and a lot of cabs with abused- 
lookmg little horses. There were no sores visible 
which I have since heard is due to American in- 
fluence. I hated to get into a cab drawn by such 
half-starved-looking little animals, but no other 
course was possible, as I found myself standing 
ankle deep in mud and concluded that it was un- 
doubtedly the rainy season, which lasts from 
about April until December. As nearly all the 
steerage passengers were bound for the New 
York Hotel and we knew they would more than 
fall it, we went to the Central. This is a bare 
forlorn place, but there are others infinitely 
worse. Some days later I tried the New York 
The room I was shown to had soiled sheets on 
the bed and the landlady was astonished that I 
insisted on their being changed. It is the custom 
in most Spanish- American hotels to leave the 
soiled linen on the beds for the use of the next 
occupant. 

Early next morning I went to the Administra- 



46 Light on Dark Places 

tion Building, where the engineering offices are 
at present located. As soon as buildings are 
completed £t Culebra the engineering force will 
move there. I went to the chief engineer's office, 
found his secretary, stated my business and 
asked him if he remembered my application 
which I had sent from California enclosing rec- 
ommendations. He said that he did remember 
and that the chief engineer would be at the 
office in about a half hour and as soon as he 
came he would tell him that I had applied for a 
position. I then gave him a short note which I 
had written on the steamer, stating I would 
like a position in Panama and asking the favor 
of an immediate answer, as, if there was none 
for me I wished to take the next boat for New 
York. The chief engineer soon arrived and his 
secretary disappeared to tell him of my request. 
He returned in a few moments and said, "Did 
you come down here to work?" I stated that I 
had and cannot imagine why he should have 
asked such a question when I had sent him the 
following letters: 

COPY. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

June 16, 1905. 
Miss Mary A. Chatfield, 
815 Shotwell Street, 
San Francisco, California. 
My dear Miss Chat field : 

In reply to your letter of May 14th I herewith 
desire to say to any one to whom you should pre* 



at Panama 47 

sent this letter that you had been in my employ 
as a stenographer at Columbia University for 
two and a half years. 

Besides the work of the Electrical Engineering 
Department, you did considerable Civil Engineer- 
ing work and are acquainted with most of the 
technical terms in both branches. 

Your work was neat and accurate and the 
composition excellent. 

I shall be glad to send any further recommen- 
dation to those to whom you apply and beg to 
remain, with best wishes, 

Yours very truly, 

George F. Sever, 
Professor of Electrical Engineering. 

COPY. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 

Electrical Engineering Department. 

October 28, 1904. 
Miss Mary A. Chatfield has been stenographer 
and typewriter of the Electrical Engineering De- 
partment of Columbia University for more than 
two years and has performed the duties of the 
position to our entire satisfaction. Her work has 
included not only correspondence and records in 
connection with our educational work, but has 
also covered a great deal of outside engineering 
correspondence which the various officers of the 
department have carried on. The character of 
this work is very much more difficult than in or- 
dinary business matters, involving as it does 
technical terms, tabulations, formulas, etc. I 



48 Light on Dark Places 

feel confident that she would be thoroughly com- 
petent and willing to perform almost any kind 
of stenography and typewriting and have no hesi- 
tation in recommending her very highly for such 
work. Very truly yours, 

F. B. Crocker, 
Professor of Electrical Engineering, 

COPY. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 

June 5, 1905. 

Miss Mary A. Chatfield was employed for sev- 
eral years at this university in the Electrical En- 
gineering Department, and during that time I 
found her work reliable and satisfactory. She 
is always careful and takes an interest in trying 
to get things right. 

Miss Chatfield has had quite a varied experi- 
ence in all kinds of scientific terminology, which 
is a thing I find it takes some time to acquire. 

FlTZHUGH TOWNSEND, 

Instructor in Electrical Engineering. 

COPY. 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 

June 7, 1905. 
This is to certify that Miss Mary A. Chatfield 
was employed as stenographer in the Electrical 
Engineering Department of this university for 
several years and I have always found her work 
to be most satisfactory. She is painstaking and 
accurate and I recommend her as an excellent 
stenographer. M. Arendt, 

Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, 



at Panama 49 

When he returned he took me to an office up- 
stairs, introduced me to a young man and left. 
He did not seem to know what to say, but sat 
and looked me over from head to foot, so I 
started the conversation by telling him of my 
long experience as a stenographer and that if I 
could stand the climate I wanted a position on 
the Isthmus. In response to this detailed ac- 
count of my qualifications he said, in a brogue 
somewhat difficult to understand, "There is a 
girl in Material and Supplies who began on $75 
a month, will you begin on that?" My impulse 
was to get up and walk down stairs, but I thought 
of my small roll of bills and said, "Having had 
$3.00 a day in New York City for more than 
three years, I am not willing to accept less than 
that on the Isthmus of Panama. I was placed 
by the Remington office in New York after a 
test examination and several months afterward 
got a position I liked better thru the Business 
Women's Club." He then said, "Would you be 
satisfied to begin on $100 a month?" I said, "No, 
three dollars a day in New York is a great deal 
more than $100 a month in Panama." "Well," 
he said, "I cannot offer you any more than $100 
a month to begin on because it is a rule of the 
Canal. Commission that any one appointed on 
the Isthmus cannot begin at more than $100 a 
month. We have just sent to Washington to have 
a stenographer of wide experience sent to us as 
soon as possible, but if you want the position 
you may have it." My thoughts were not pleas- 
ant as I considered that, having paid my own 
fare, I must begin on less than if I had been sent 



50 Light on Dark Places 

down at the expense of the government; also in 
taking this position I was saving the expense of 
sending the stenographer from Washington. I 
then said, "Will you raise my salary if I remain?" 
He said, "We will raise just as soon as we see 
you are competent." I then told him I would 
take the position and asked at what salaries 
stenographers began that were sent down by the 
government. He replied, "$125 a month." The 
chief of this division, Meteorology and River 
Hydraulics, soon came in and I was introduced 
to him. 

This branch of the canal work will interest you 
greatly if I can make it plain to you. It is neces- 
sary to measure the rise and fall of the tides of 
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also the high 
and low water marks and velocity of the streams 
— it would not take me long now to get beyond 
my depth, but I hope to understand this per- 
fectly as I continue in the work. I have sent you 
an interesting novel entitled "Baron Montez, of 
Panama and Paris." The characters in this 
book are not fictitious and you can believe almost 
all of it, if not all. The house still stands which 
the baron gave to the actress that she might con- 
tract yellow fever. Notice where the reporter 
questioning the French engineer alludes to the 
work being done by this division. These are the 
questions and answers in the book : 

Q. "How are you going to provide for the 
tremendous floods in the Chagres River that 
wash down each rainy season dirt enough to fill 
up the whole canal?" 



at Panama 5r 

A. "By means of a large dam and a reser- 
voir/' 

Q. "The floods in the Chagres being provided 
for, what will you do with the higher rise of 
ti#!e in the Pacific than the Atlantic?" 

Then they threw him down stairs. 

There are several gaging stations thru the 
Zone, each in charge of a man called a hydro- 
grapher. It is difficult to get good men to take 
charge of these gaging stations. So many men 
sent down here drink to excess, which is detri- 
mental to the success of the work of those having 
charge of delicate instruments, required to keep 
exact records. One of them swaggered into the 
office one day. I had just written instructions to 
be sent to him and other hydrographers. As he 
asked for his mail I called him and gave him his 
letter of instructions. He crushed it up in his 
hand without looking at it and said, "I've got 
packs of such letters. I never read them." I 
was afterward told that instead of returning to 
the station that day he got drunk and slept all 
night in a seat in the plaza. I am informed that 
the Isthmian Canal Commission send numbers of 
such people down here at the request of senators, 
congressmen and heads of departments. They 
come with neither mental nor physical examina- 
tion. As far as I can see or hear the advertised 
requirement that employes of the Isthmian Canal 
Commission must pass a Civil Service examina- 
tion is a ruse to enable them to refuse to send 
people they don't wish to send to the Isthmus. 
This violation of Civil Service rules applies to all 
branches of the work here. If the rules were en- 



$2 Light on Dark Places 

forced none but competent people could be sent 
here. The brother of our chief clerk, just sent 
down by the commission at a request from the 
Isthmus, was taken sick the day after his arrival 
and sent to the hospital. The verdict was that 
he had an ulcer in his stomach and it would be 
at least two months before they could dismiss 
him. A stenographer who came down on the 
same boat went immediately to the hospital and, 
tho he was engaged to work in this department, 
has not appeared since. Another stenographer 
who is working in this department arrived with 
a big boil on his neck. He is certainly worthy of 
admiration for, tho tortured with this miserable 
boil, he works every day and works well. 

"METEOROLOGY, the department of nat- 
ural philosophy that treats of the phenomena of 
the atmosphere, especially those that relate to 
water and climate, their relations to each other 
and the laws to which they are subject. 

2. The character of the weather and of at- 
mospheric changes of any particular place. 

It is necessary in meteorological observations 
to know the highest temperature of the day and 
the lowest temperature of the night." 

"HYDRAULICS, the science of liquids, espe- 
cially water, in motion. 

2. Engineering. The art that deals with mov- 
ing water, the regulation of and protection 
against its natural action, its artificial conveyance 
for useful purposes and the mechanical utiliza- 
tion of its force." 

"HYDROGRAPHY, the science and art of de- 
termining and making known the conditions of 



at Panama 53 

navigable waters, whether ocean or inland, chart- 
ing the coast and rivers, determining the depths, 
the quality of the bottom, the times of the tides 
and measuring the currents." 

"HYDROLOGY, the branch of physical geog- 
raphy that treats of the waters of the earth." 

Desiring to perfectly understand these hereto- 
fore unfamiliar terms, now so often dictated to 
me, I asked for an unabridged dictionary and 
was told there was none nearer than the gov- 
ernor's office downstairs. I took my pencil and 
book and went to seek the unabridged. The end 
of the hall was fenced off and occupied by a 
colored man, who, in reply to my inquiry, said, 
"Come right in here," and raising the bar across 
the end of the hall, showed me into the room 
adjoining. I entered a spacious apartment, in 
the middle of which at a desk sat the Great, the 
August, the Governor. I approached and stated 
that I was looking for an unabridged dictionary 
and had been told that the only one in the build- 
ing was in the governor's office. He slowly 
raised the book in one hand and passed it to me. 
I thanked him and retired to a corner of the 
room and wrote down the definitions. I then re- 
turned the unabridged, saying, "Thank you." 
He replied, "There is a dictionary in the next 
room, don't you know." I said, "I did not know 
it" and departed. When I got back to the office 
I inquired what the governor was before he came 
here and was told that three years ago he was a 
stenographer in Washington on $1,800 a year. 
This incident recalled a time when, in seeking his 
stenographer to borrow some carbon, I blundered 



54 Eight on Dark Places 



into the private office of one of the great engi- 
neers of the world. When I told him for whom 
I was looking, he said, "My stenographer works 
in the next room and she is not here to-day, but 
I can show you where the carbon is." 

This incident set me thinking, and I recollected 
the courtesy and kindness I had received in the 
past from different people of position and wealth 
and from those who had neither. How little per- 
haps I had appreciated it at the time and how 
much less expressed my appreciation ; therefore I 
wrote a few letters to people I had not seen for 
years telling them of my happy recollections of 
them. One's sojourn on the Isthmus will prob- 
ably be detrimental to their bodily health, but it 
may be beneficial to their souls. Tho you may 
feel reasonably well yourself it makes one feel 
serious to see so much sickness and death around. 

I have usually found men and women in high 
positions very courteous. When I was such a 
small child the memory of it seems almost a 
dream, Dom Pedro, the last Emperor of Brazil, 
visited the school I attended. He was looking 
into the educational methods of other countries 
that he might more intelligently improve that of 
his own. As sooi as we were assembled before 
him my eyes were immediately directed to the 
top of his head, which my childish imagination 
had encircled with a crown of flashing gems. So 
sure was I that he would be thus adorned (or 
disfigured) that I could hardly believe it when I 
saw nothing but a mass of snow white hair, just 
like anybody's grandfather's! Further, this sur- 
prising old gentleman, this descendant of a hun- 



at Panama 55 

dred kings, was insisting that our lady principal 
should not remain standing. "Madam, I pray- 
that you be seated," he said. 

I do not think any of his loyal subjects felt 
more sympathy for him in his banishment and 
exile than I did, but a ruler who frees slaves, be 
he an emperor or a president, seems obliged to 
suffer the martyr's fate. 

Mr. Arango told me that during the massacre 
of the citizens of the United States when return- 
ing from California (described in "Baron Mon- 
tez") the parents of three little girls were mur- 
dered among the other victims. So young were 
these little daughters of the United States that 
they did not know who they were and it has 
never been learned by the people on the Isthmus. 
They were adopted and brought up by Pana- 
manian families. These ladies may be the right- 
ful owners of fortunes others are spending. 

I was angry at first to find that I had been 
placed under a Panamanian engineer, but pres- 
ently discovered him to be a gentleman, and 
an educated man, which I hear cannot he said of 
many from the States. He was educated in the 
States, as are most Panamanians who can afford 
to be. I shall learn Spanish, as by so doing I 
may be more valuable in the position. When I 
took his first dictation I felt as I imagine a 
drowning man feels when the water closes over 
his head. I could not understand a word, but 
pulled myself together and took down the sounds, 
which, when I looked over the dictation I was 
able to transcribe correctly. I soon became ac- 
customed to his accent. Another stenographer in 



56 Light on Dark Places 

the office and I agree that we would rather take 
his dictation than that of the chief clerk — the 
gentleman with the brogue. I do not know what 
nationality he is. He claims to be a Scotchman 
and when I inadvertently spelled the first syllable 
of his name Mc instead of Mac one day he or- 
dered it corrected, saying, "I am not Irish, and 
if I was I wouldn't own it." As an instance, one 
day in transcribing notes, I found they read the 
U. S. Theological Survey. Knowing that the 
U. S. has no such survey, I said, "You were dic- 
tating, were not, of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey?" "Yes," he replied, "do your 
notes read theological survey? Before you came 
one of the other stenographers understood me to 
pronounce that word the same way and did not 
know any better and the letter came near being 
sent reading U. S. Theological Survey." 

Next day I met the English engineer that was 
on the boat. He was waiting for the connecting 
steamer for Peru. I must tell you how nice he 
was to me. He asked me before I left the S. S. 
"Peru" if I really meant to try to work in Pan- 
ama. When I stated that I did he asked me if I 
had any relatives who were Masons in good 
standing, that he wanted to put me in the 
Masons' care. I told him that four of my 
mother's brothers wore Knight Templar's badges 
and that my mother's grandfather had belonged 
to the Prince of Wales Lodge in England, but I 
declined to have any Masons called on for me. I 
might also have told him that two of my father's 
uncles had been Royal Arch Masons, but did not 
bother. It always seems so silly to me to be 



at Panama 57 

calling on Free Masons for help when you ought 
to have sense enough to take care of yourself. 
Sometimes they would be poor things to call 
upon — Mr. Decker is a Mason. One of my an- 
cestors was helped very materially by Masons in 
the Revolutionary War, tho he did not inten- 
tionally ask for aid. He was captured by the 
British and as they lowered him into the hold of 
one of the prison ships such a sickening feeling 
of disgust came over him at the dreadful odor, 
he involuntarily made some motion with his 
hands. To his surprise he was immediately 
drawn up and exchanged for an English prisoner. 
Believing he had made a Masonic sign of dis- 
tress he joined the Masons as soon as he went 
home and found that he had done so. I was 
ashamed to tell the English engineer how disap- 
pointed and disgusted I was, and in reply to his 
kind inquiries, told him everything was lovely. 
I wished afterward I had not and let him do any- 
thing he thought proper to make things smooth 
for me. He said, "I am glad to hear you have 
come out so well. I was worried about you." 
Then he gave me a magazine for a parting gift 
and went to his ship. 

I never missed a chance when on the boat to 
try and impress upon him the superiority of the 
United States to England without the slightest 
success. Once I told him with a perfectly sober 
face that I understood all Englishmen made their 
wives black their boots. Then he began to roar, 
lion-like, and said that he had often blacked his 
wife's boots when he could not afford to hire 



58 Light on Dark Places 

them blacked, but he never allowed her to touch 
his. 

I left the expensive Central Hotel as soon as 
possible. I was fortunate in having help in look- 
ing for a room because nobody appears to under- 
stand English in Panama and unless some one 
goes with you who has some knowledge of Span- 
ish you have a hard time. Imagine my astonish- 
ment and pleasure the second day I was in the 
office at seeing an engineer whom I had met in 
New York City, a graduate of Columbia Uni- 
versity. He recognized me immediately and 
helped me to find a room in an old Panamanian 
house. The landlady had had her back balconies 
divided into several small rooms. The house is 
built around three sides of the garden at the 
back of the house. Beautiful variegated foliage 
plants and a tree, similar to our hollyhocks both 
in flower and leaf, but larger, grow in the gar- 
den. These charming plants formed such a con- 
trast to most of dirty Panama that I engaged a 
room. Had it been in the old part of the house 
it would have been comparatively cool, but being 
in one of the wooden partitions on the porches, it 
was hot enough to suit his satanic majesty. I 
hired it for a month and thought I would melt 
before the time was up. As is the custom in 
many tropical buildings the top of the partitions 
of the rooms is lattice work, and when your 
neighbor comes in late and lights the lamp after 
you have gone to sleep and wakens you with the 
glare it is annoying, also when said neighbors 
come in drunk. There was a terror who roomed 
at the end of the row and I think he must have 



"at Panama 59 

been drunk every night, for he always swore 
like a pirate, and as I never heard him do so dur- 
ing the day, infer he was intoxicated. He usu- 
ally talked an hour or more to his room mate 
about all subjects under the sun, often his ideas 
as to the wife he expected some time to have, al- 
ways interspersing his remarks with oaths. Oc- 
casionally some of his masculine neighbors would 
call out, "Stop swearing," but he never stopped. 
My landlady was a native of Panama and a 
widow of a Frenchman who was with the 
French Canal Company. She is very amia- 
ble and had several nieces at her house, which 
made it very pleasant. They never talked 
or walked with a man alone and acted as 
afraid as I would with a lion, a four-footed one. 
One evening I went to the plaza with one of the 
other lodgers and after we had walked about 
awhile we saw these young ladies sitting there 
with some relatives and asked them to walk with 
us. With them was a little crippled gentleman, 
and to be courteous, I stepped back to walk with 
him, leaving my escort with them. I had no 
sooner done so than the Panamanian girls 
grabbed me as tho I was their only shield from 
perdition, and pulling me forward, exclaimed, 
"Not walk English, not walk English. We must 
walk Spanol." A band plays on the plaza every 
Wednesday and Saturday evening, then the Pan- 
amanian ladies come out, safely guarded by 
watchful relatives, and promenade and listen to 
the music. Reckless American youths sometimes 
try to flirt with them. I was sitting on the porch 
at the house one night when a young Texan 



60 Light on D^rk Places 

(with very prominent ears) rushed in breathless, 
seated himself beside me, and mopping the per- 
spiration from his brow, said, "Any American 
ought to be ashamed of himself to take any no- 
tice of these Panamanian women any way." 
"Why so?" said I, scenting something amusing. 
"Myself and three other fellows," he said, "were 
walking on the plaza listening to the music and 
five Panamanian girls came along together. We 
looked at them and they said, 'Good evening/ 
We answered and started to walk with them, 
when their brother and a lot of his friends started 
for us and chased us off the plaza and all around 
the streets and I have just dodged them and got 
home. We never said anything but good evening, 
any way." "If you do not think you should no- 
tice them, why do you ?" I asked. "Oh," he said, 
"some of them are awfully cute." "Yes," inter- 
rupted another, "and these were nothing but lit- 
tle school girls with short dresses on, any way." 
"And," continued the other, "it's nobody's busi- 
ness but their brother's, any how. The others 
had no business interfering." Then I got a 
chance to put in a word and said, "You gentle- 
men had better go up to New England and get 
a little sand. Why, if this had occurred to a 
man from New England he would have turned 
around and wiped up the street with half a dozen 
Panamanians with one hand." Texas looked at 
me and said, "Oh, New England! You are al- 
ways blowing about New England." This lately 
has become true, for when I do not know what 
else to say I begin to brag about the men of New 
England and I think if they could hear me they 



at Panama 6i 

would be very astonished at my account of their 
marvelous perfections. I often am myself. 
When the men of Panama fancy a lady they stand 
and gaze at the windows of her house for some 
time (rubber, as our small boys say), and after 
some days venture to talk to her thru the iron 
bars which always protect the windows, but are 
never permitted, even when engaged, to be alone 
with her. What do you think of this? Would 
you want to marry anybody that needed watch- 
ing? 

I enclose a picture of a Panamanian street. It 
is good, but flattering, because you cannot see 
the dirt nor smell the odors caused by the accu- 
mulation of filth and the lack of sewerage. The 
smells are horrible, and every one says that bad 
as it is now, it is far better than before Colonel 
Gorgas commenced to clean up the streets. He 
has robbed the turkey buzzards of their ancient 
job by forbidding people to throw swill and 
other refuse into the streets. They are now com- 
pelled to put it in tin cans, which are emptied 
daily. 

I learned something to-day which disgusted 
and astonished me to the amusement of the in- 
itiated. One of the hydro lgers from Washing- 
ton sent in a request to have the fees refunded 
which he had given to the servants on the ship 
when coming to the Isthmus. Being nobody 
much, his request was refused, but I am told that 
many people do have the fees they give servants 
refunded to them! Think of it — the tax-payers 
must pay some people's servant's fees ! And this 



52 Light on Dark Places 

is a republic! No wonder some people can fee 
servants ! 

One of the most deplorable steals perpetrated, 
of which I have heard, is that of a large quan- 
tity of fine Oregon lumber, bought for the build- 
ing of the greatly needed quarters for employes, 
which disappeared mysteriously on the coast of 
Central America on its way to the Isthmus. 

I hear there is an abundance of excellent tim- 
ber on the Isthmus, but there are no sawmills. 

Opposite where I roomed first are the ruins of 
an old monastery about 400 years old. It is an 
enormous brick building and the walls are still 
standing, tho the roof is gone. It was burned 
before it had been built a year. Farther down 
the street are the ruins of an old cathedral, dis- 
tinguished by having a flat arch, which I am told 
is unusual as it is made of brick or concrete or 
both. Such arches are usually curved. I did not 
think anything about it except that it is not as 
graceful as a curved one, but it seems to be con- 
sidered very remarkable. 

Notice the narrowness of the sidewalks. Two 
people can walk abreast only by walking arm in 
arm on nearly all the streets. 

The interior of the large cathedral on the 
plaza does not look badly, but the smaller 
churches remind me of our 5 and 10 cent stores 
because their altars are decorated with paper 
flowers and other cheap articles. 

I never appreciated the meaning of the term 
"monkey shines" until I watched the antics of 
a white- faced monkey at the first place I roomed. 
It is dark brown with the exception of its face 




Facing- page 6. 



at Panama 63 

and neck, which are white ; hence the name. The 
top of the forehead is distinctly marked from 
its face by dark brown hair which makes it look 
as tho it wore a little skull cap. It was tied on 
the front porch in the morning to avoid the sun 
and on the back porch in the afternoon for the 
same reason. When on the back porch its rope 
was long enough to admit its going into the last 
room, and in the absence of the occupant it 
helped itself to his shaving brush, clothes brush, 
etc., and threw them around on the porch. The 
owner swore that he would send him to the 
Happy Hunting Grounds. The window was 
kept closed for awhile after this, to prevent fur- 
ther depredations, but it was not many days be- 
fore I saw Mr. Monkey coming out of the open 
window with the jacket of a pair of silk pajamas 
in his paws. I took it away from him and put it 
back and shut the window. The faces he made 
at me are beyond description. There was a dear 
little Cuban lady at this house whose husband 
and brother were working for the commission. 
Her brother untied the monkey one day later 
than the usual hour. Mr. Monkey was furious ; 
I presume because he had been left in the sun' 
and when the young man untied him he sprang 
upon the top of his head, which was covered with 
hair enough for three ordinary men, clutched it 
in both paws, pulled it as hard as he could and 
danced up and down. I never saw a funnier 
sight. Then he sprang down and grabbed a 
flower pot and threw it on the porch, emptying a 
lot of dirt. Fearing the landlady's wrath, I took 
the flower pot and began throwing back the dirt. 



64 Light on Dark Places 

While I was doing this he grabbed another and 
threw that on the porch. Then the young man 
caught him and held him while we finished re- 
pairing the damage. This monkey would hang 
by his tail to the woodwork of the piazza and 
brace with his hind feet and hold out his fore- 
paws and catch anything that any one would 
toss him from the ground below. He got lots 
of dainties because we liked to watch him catch 
things. One day one of the gentlemen in the 
office said, "I saw your friend the monkey this 
morning hanging by his tail from the front porch 
of the house wiping his face on a towel and after 
he had finished he threw the towel into the 
street." That is the habit of monkeys. When 
they get thru playing with anything they do not 
bother putting it back where they found it, but 
throw it as far as they can. If you get up early 
enough you can buy monkeys, parrots, etc., at 
the market. Folks rise at dawn here and do 
their marketing. Before 10 o'clock everything is 
sold and the venders gone. I shall not do any 
marketing, as you know I hate to rise early in 
the morning. It is a great trial to have to be at 
the office at 8 o'clock instead of 9 as in New 
York. We have two hours at noon, but I would 
much rather have one hour at noon and get to 
the office at 9. However, I am not running 
things. If I were there would be some changes, 
for I never saw such a state of affairs. 

When my month was up at the French lady's I 
changed my room on account of the heat. I had 
been taking my meals across the street at a 
Jamaican lady's, the mother of the British Vice- 



at Panama 65 

consul. This was the best place in Panama to 
board and had she had a vacant room I would 
have gone there to live. As it was, I decided to 
go to the Hotel Central and not trouble hunting 
other lodgings because we expected to be moved 
to Culebra very shortly with the rest of the en- 
gineering force. I stayed several days at the 
Central, but soon tired of it, for altho I had to 
pay $4.00 U. S. a day I got about $1.50 worth 
for it. Having had the good fortune to meet an 
English missionary, a Miss Johnson, in the mean- 
time, she found a better boarding place for me. 
I wish I could give you the history of this lady's 
life. She is down here in Panama just to do all 
the good she can, and I do not think she is paid 
anything for it. She has a small income of her 
own, I think. She has parents and brothers and sis- 
ters in England, but always wanted to be a mis- 
sionary. Her health was not up to the standard re- 
quired by the missionary board when she was 
younger and they would not send her out, so she 
went herself. She was in Egypt a great many 
years teaching Egyptian girls sewing and other 
useful vocations. She has ridden horseback days 
at a time across the desert without a saddle, for 
the Arabs will not ride on a saddle that a woman 
has ever ridden on. She goes around Panama 
taking care of sick people that are not in the 
hospital and doing all the good she can. One day 
when I was at the Central I had a headache and 
ordered a soda cracker; the manager said they 
had none in the house and never offered to get 
me one, tho I had eaten nothing all that day. I 
managed to get word to Miss Johnson and in 



66 Light on Dark Places 

about an hour she came with a dozen crackers, 
after having gone a mile for them. She conducts 
church services at various churches in the Zone 
when the ministers are away. She intends to go 
down among the Peruvian Indians as soon as 
some one can be found to take up her work at 
Panama. She says the place in Peru where she 
and another missionary intend to work is such a 
dangerous post it is necessary to have horses 
saddled, ready to ride away at any moment to 
save their lives, because the Roman Catholic 
Church is bitterly opposed to Protestant missions 
and often excites the ignorant and easily influ- 
enced Indians to violence in order to rid them- 
selves of Protestant missionaries. The Arch- 
bishop of Panama is a Roman Catholic priest, yet 
one frequently hears of the archbishop's daugh- 
ter and other things of the same sort, which are 
so much a matter of course that no one but a 
newly arrived American stops and stares when 
any one mentions them. I have been told by 
Cubans that it is a very common occurrence for 
the heads of families in Cuba to positively for- 
bid the priests to visit their houses. 

I was so pleased to receive your letter, which 
came on the same mail with a dozen others, that 
I could hardly read it. I kept picking up one 
and reading a few lines, then picking up an- 
other. It was more than a month since I had 
received a line from anybody because I had been 
at sea so long. As many others are asking the 
same questions you are I may sometimes send 
you copies of letters I have written to other 
people. 



at Panama 6j 

Congratulate me on passing the Civil Service 
examination. My rating, tho not as high as I 
would have liked, is higher than I hoped, all 
things considered, 78.81. Passing mark is 70. 
Had I passed at 100 I am sure that, under the 
regime here, it would not have done me one 
cent's worth of good. I think that it is detri- 
mental, rather than otherwise, to have better 
qualifications than the many humbugs possess, 
because it makes one a target for their animosity. 
There is a man in the office who is trying to run 
the whole thing, and he has not even sense 
enough to let me alone tho my position is dis- 
tinctly understood to be that of the stenographer 
of the chief of the division, who with the chief 
clerk and myself have one office entirely to our- 
selves. I cannot make a remark to some one else 
but he flatly contradicts me. I said the other day 
that I should think that in Panama, as is the 
custom in New York and some other cities, offices 
would be closed Saturday afternoons. He 
promptly informed us that it was not the cus- 
tom in New York to close the offices on Saturday 
afternoons. As I worked there over three years, 
several months of which I was substituting, thus 
going from office to office, and cannot recollect 
a single one that did not close on Saturday after- 
noons, besides knowing a great many girls who 
worked in other offices, I feel able to state that it 
is customary for offices to close Saturday after- 
noons. The chief clerk, who, like many other 
people here in positions of authority, is lacking 
in training and experience for such a position, 
while floundering around in bewilderment, was 



68 Light on Dark Places 

persuaded by this officious young ignoramus to 
allow him to dictate in all matters. He assumes 
to possess knowledge on all and any subject, 
among them engineering. I said to him one day, 
"If I am going to have a new typewriter it would 
be well for me to have keys marked with engi- 
neering signs, as I have formerly when working 
for engineers. I have rather forgotten what 
they are, will you please write them down for 
me ?" "Signs," he said, "what signs ? I did not 
know there were any signs." He was sent down 
by the commission at a salary of $150 a month 
and sent out to superintend some work with 
a university graduate under him who was re- 
ceiving but $100 a month. This engineer had 
to teach his supposed superior, and this is an 
every-day state of affairs on the Isthmus — infe- 
riors teaching supposed superiors, only nobody 
supposes they are superiors. And this work, the 
greatest engineering feat in the world, which 
should be entrusted to intelligent and experienced 
people, is being conducted in such a manner as 
to make the United States ridiculous and causing 
an incalculable amount of unnecessary expense. 
I have written numerous letters at the dictation 
of the chief clerk to the several men in charge 
of the gaging stations asking them to give him an 
account of the material and supplies he has sent 
them. Tho he has written repeatedly but one 
has made a report and he does not know whether 
this is correct or not. I doubt if the propriety 
of keeping a record of what he distributed would 
ever have crossed his mind were not the local 
auditor continually calling on him to render an 



at Panama 69 

accounting. The equipment of the gaging sta- 
tions includes very costly instruments. The en- 
gineer (?) who did not know the signs had an- 
other opportunity to do engineering work. The 
head of one of the other engineering departments 
recently wrote our chief that he heard he had 
an engineer in his office doing clerical work and 
he needed one, and requested him to transfer him. 
Our chief immediately told Mr. Burrill he would 
transfer him, but that gentleman declined to be 
transferred, saying he preferred clerical work! 
He has written the commission complaining be- 
cause he was discharged from his position draw- 
ing the salary he was sent down at, namely, $150. 
And why should he not complain? If the com- 
mission sends men down without ascertaining 
whether they are worth anything or not, is it not 
the commission's fault rather than that of the 
men they send? I have heard that he said he 
paid the man that recommended him for getting 
him the position. 

Our chief clerk got his position because at the 
time he was appointed the assistant engineer of 
this division was a great friend of his and in- 
duced Mr. Arango to make him chief clerk. 
They have since quarreled over a Panamanian 
girl and are bitter foes. The c. c. was sent down 
by the commission at $75 a month. They do 
not even pretend to examine clerks sent at $75 
a month. Why not, unless they are sure they 
know nothing? He, therefore, jumped from 
$75 a month to $150. I am told that before com- 
ing to the Isthmus he was a motor man. Mr. 
Arango told me once he was distracted with the 



yo Light on Dark Places 

incompetent people that were sent down to 
him (this means from Washington) for whom 
he had to find places in his division. I think the 
Isthmian Canal Commission is more to blame 
for sending such people down than the incom- 
petents are for coming. You can realize the 
temptation to a man who has run motor cars all 
his life, or done rough mechanical work, to take 
a chief clerkship, or some other responsible posi- 
tion to get the salary, even tho he knows he is 
utterly unfit to fill it, if those having authority 
allow him to jump into it from the foot of the 
ladder. This practice, of course, drives compe- 
tent men away from the Isthmus in disgust, as 
they, will not take orders from men who know 
less than they do. 

There has been a sewer laid in the City of 
Panama by American engineers, so-called. I 
have just heard that it is not properly constructed 
and the work will all have to be done again. Of 
course, properly qualified men were not in charge 
of the work. I found a copy in my desk of an 
official report stating that numbers of young en- 
gineers had come here, graduates of universities, 
and left, disappointed, because of the lack of 
recognition of ability, etc. 

In response to your anxious inquiries as to 
how I expect to avoid catching yellow fever, I 
am pleased to inform you that I am frequently 
ordered out of my room in the early dawn so that 
the sanitary department can fill it with burning 
sulphur. The last time they came I ordered them 
off in the most stentorian voice I could assume 
and told them to give me an hour to get dressed. 



at Panama Jt 

The man in the next room swore and said he 
wished the French were running things now so 
that a fellow could take yellow fever in peace if 
he wanted to. 

I have had the diversion of attending two wed- 
dings thru the kindness of the chief clerk, who 
is very popular in Panamanian society. The first 
was that of an English nurse at Ancon Hospital 
and a Jamaican clerk working for the commis- 
sion. It was a very pretty wedding and the next 
day I was telling the lodgers at the house about 
it. One of my audience asked if the groom was 
sober. I said, "Of course, what do you mean?" 
He said, "If he was it is the first night he has 
been since he has been on the Isthmus." "Why," 
I said, "what do you mean?" He said, "Just 
what I say; if he was it is the first night he has 
been since he has been on the Isthmus." The 
other bride was a Panamanian lady, her groom a 
German merchant. It was in the cathedral. The 
service was all Spanish and very long. I did not 
attend the reception because my escort did not 
have a dress coat. 

I have been making several copies of "Instruc- 
tions in Steam Gaging" and I am going to send 
you one and a photograph of a gaging station. 
The last time the nearest station was inspected 
by Mr. Arango and the chief observer I accom- 
panied them and Mr. Arango says that, when 
convenient, I may go on these trips of inspection 
to other stations so that I can get a clear under- 
standing of the work. Where I am now boarding 
I am served with the regular tropical breakfast, 
namely, one cup of coffee, one roll and one 



72 Light on Dark Places 

orange. This suggestion of a breakfast they 
call "coffee." At lunch time they serve what 
thev call breakfast, which is enough for a large 
dinner. I wish they would deduct a little from 
the breakfast and add it to the "coffee." It was 
specially inconvenient the day I visited the gag- 
ing station, for I was hungry before I started, 
and as we were very late in returning, about 2 
o'clock, I became positively ravenous and asked 
the hydrographer in charge of the station for a 
cracker. He brought out all the food he had 
and I solaced myself with some oranges. 

I enclose post cards of the Administration 
Building, the cathedral facing the plaza, a view 
of the Bay of Panama, some of the Ancon Hos- 
pital Buildings, showing palm trees, Pacific en- 
trance of the canal at La Boca, views of the Cule- 
bra cut and a picture of some colored women 
carrying heavy loads on their heads. One day 
I saw a colored woman walking along the street 
wearing a man's crownless sailor hat and in place 
of the crown she had a large ripe pineapple. 
Evidently she considered this the proper way to 
carry it for she had nothing in her hands. If 
you study these pictures they will answer many 
of your questions. They are taken by Mr. I. L. 
Maduro, Jr., of Panama, and if any of you want 
more you can get almost every scene on the 
Isthmus by sending for the complete set. 

The interesting ruins of Old Panama are a 
few miles from the present city of Panama. The 
pirate Morgan destroyed the old city about 400 
years ago, murdering or enslaving the inhabi- 
tants and carrying off their wealth, which was 



at Panama 73 

enormous. The present site of Panama was 
selected as being safer from such attacks. I in- 
tend to visit the old ruins and will then describe 
them in detail. 

The washerwomen wash clothes in the rivers 
and pound them on the rocks, as you have heard ; 
and as you imagine, the clothes are short lived. 

The food one receives down here depends 
largely upon where one eats. At Mrs. Humbert's 
we had fairly good food, but the native meat is 
very tough. I suppose because it is killed and 
eaten the same day, but maybe it is tough any 
way. My impression is that they do not take 
any pains in feeding and caring for the cattle. 
Pie, cake and such dainties are almost unknown. 
The idea of dessert is fruit, guava jelly and such 
things, which are called sweets. Some of the 
restaurants are called good and some are not. 
The natural supposition would be that the gov- 
ernment mess at Corozal would be the best, but 
the food provided is so bad that the I. C. C. 
employes quartered there say they cannot eat it 
and wait every morning until they reach Panama 
and take their first meal, as well as the others, at 
a . Panamanian restaurant. Corozal is the first 
station north of Panama. Food served at a gov- 
ernment mess should be much better than that 
served anywhere else because there is supposed 
to be no profit to anybody at a government mess. 

What think you of the following? There is 
a man here who has been in the Philippine serv- 
ice. While there he availed himself of the oppor- 
tunities to rob dead soldiers, who had been gradu- 
ated from colleges and universities, of their cer- 



74 Light on Dark Places 

tificates. These he has been selling in Panama, 
erasing with acid the names of the dead and in- 
serting the names of the purchasers. This he 
published while drunk. There is a club here 
bearing the proud title of the University Club, 
whose membership requirement is that members 
must either be graduates, or have been students 
of some college or university, and it is an open 
secret that numbers of members are shams. I 
infer that the great majority must be, because 
bona fide college men surely would never tolerate 
such a state of affairs. You can imagine from 
this instance what some are who have influence 
here. The Chief of the Sanitary Department is 
reputed to be doing his work as tho he were ac- 
countable to some individual, instead of the tax- 
payers of the United States. They say he is 
driving the natives demented at the way he is 
cleaning out dark corners and that even the basins 
that contain holy water in the churches do not 
escape his ruthless orders. 

There are three or four large dry goods shops 
here and prices are as high and higher than those 
of New York City. Many of the smaller stores, 
as soon as they see an American, ask anything 
they think they can make you pay. Chinese mer- 
chants here carry very beautiful goods in silks, 
fans, brie a brae, etc. The little Cuban lady 
where I first roomed told me that if I wanted to 
buy any silk to let her buy it for me for I would 
not have to pay anywhere near as much for it. I 
was about to buy a nice silk dress, but learned 
that, owing to the dampness of the atmosphere 
here, clothes mold and rot even when kept in 



at Panama 75 

locked trunks. Woolens, silks and shoes will 
become covered with mold in a short time. Scis- 
sors and knives unless constantly wrapped in pa- 
per or put in a pasteboard box will soon become 
covered with rust. Gold, silver, copper and 
brass do not appear to be injured by the atmos- 
phere. This molding and rotting of clothing is 
an item not to be ignored in considering the ex- 
pense of living here. 

I do not know just where our office is coming 
out. I talked it over with one of the other 
stenographers awhile ago. I am idle half the 
time and he is idle all the time, they say, and I 
am_ very much annoyed by having dictations 
which I properly should receive given to other 
stenographers. The chief clerk and his adviser 
when anything is being dictated that they do not 
want me to know, and I think there is a good 
deal they do not want me to know, have a stenog- 
rapher who is a friend of theirs take the dicta- 
tion. I am told by people working in other of- 
fices that in order to provide lucrative positions 
for their special friends the office force is to be 
increased after the 1st of January. I told the 
other stenographer I did not like to have some 
one else doing work that belongs to me and 
asked him if he did not feel the same way. He 
said, "Why, child, it is not our fault ; we do not 
need to worry about that. We are here to earn 
our living and do what we are told to." As he 
is several years my junior his paternal form of 
address, coupled with his serious face, was amus- 
ing. He also stated that this office was far from 
being the worst managed one on the Isthmus, 



76 Light on Dark Places 

He sat at the desk I have, before I came, and in 
looking thru it I found the paper he received 
from Washington notifying him of his appoint- 
ment at $60 odd a month. He is now called a 
stenographer and paid $125, tho they had sent 
to Washington for an experienced stenographer 
to put in that place. He is a good friend of the 
chief clerk, who has made his own position solid 
by ingratiating himself with the secretary of the 
chief engineer. The head of our division could 
not remove him if he wanted to. I have been 
positively promised that my salary is to be raised 
to $125, dated from the 1st of January, and the 
second day that I was here our chief instructed 
the chief clerk to cancel the order sent to Wash- 
ington for the experienced stenographer as the 
position had been filled on the Isthmus. He also 
asked me later if he could count on my staying. 
I said I would stay a year any way. I wonder 
how long I can stand the climate. I believe two 
years is as long as any one should stay. If peo- 
ple remain here too long they sometimes get into 
such a condition they cannot live anywhere else. 
W r hat do you think of this? To get supplies 
to some of the gaging stations they have to be 
poled up the river in canoes. These canoes are 
very primitive affairs, hollowed out of trunks of 
trees, and traveling in them is a dangerous mat- 
ter even in pleasant weather, and the poling of 
them is very hard work. The usual munificent 
salary paid to the negro laborers is 10 cents U. S. 
currency an hour. For this extra hazardous and 
laborious transmission of supplies the rate is 13 
cents an hour. Some of the laborers working in 



at Panama yy 

another department at 10 cents an hour, learning 
that they could earn 13 cents, applied for and 
received this job. Mr. Arango received a letter 
from their former employer instructing him that 
he must discharge these negroes. Reply was dic- 
tated to me stating that they would be discharged 
at the earliest possible moment and an explana- 
tory apology made for paying 13 cents an hour, 
for the reason that it was such hard work. I 
said to the chief clerk, "Is this Russia or the 
United States? If a poor, miserable negro labor- 
er has a chance to earn 13 cents instead of 10 
must he be thrown out of work?" He said, 
"Yes, that is the custom down here. In the posi- 
tion I held before this I spent most of my time 
going around and seeing that the laborers were 
discharged when they tried to work for another 
department in order to get a few cents more. It 
was my business to see that they could not get 
work anywhere on the Isthmus." "Well " I said 
"would you like that?" He said, "No, but I 
couldn't help it." And he could not unless he 
resigned ; then they would have sent out another 
chaser. 

We have had a big fire here; it looked for a 
time as tho most of Panama would be burned. 
The chief clerk and others were helping the fire- 
men a good part of the day. 

Under the Panamanian law no divorces are 
allowed. How do you think poor women arrange 
to escape abuse from brutal husbands from whom 
there is no legal deliverance? Simply by not 
marrying at all, thus giving their partners no 
rights whatever; therefore if they get beyond en- 



78 Light on Dark Places 

durance they are able to put them out. "Any- 
thing that accomplishes its purpose is, to a de- 
gree, beyond criticism." 

Cristobal, C. Z., May 31, 1906, 
Care Div. Material and Supplies. 
You will note that I have been transported to 
the other side of the Isthmus. I have received 
your several inquiries as to what has become of 
me and you doubtless received the post cards I 
sent as apologies for letters. When I last wrote 
you I was in a hopeful frame of mind. Then 
came the landslide and I experienced a long in- 
terval of despair. I would ere this have returned 
to the States, but like many others, having en- 
dured it six months, it seems that it would be 
decidedly foolish not to stay two more and get 
the vacation I then expect to obtain. Each em- 
ploye is allowed six weeks' vacation, with pay, 
for every twelve months, and this may be granted 
after eight months' service if convenient to those 
directing the work. Then followed a short inter- 
val of hope. Now I have none ; that is, not much, 
but I have resolved to ascertain if it is an actual 
fact that, as I have often been told, unless you 
have influential friends to look out for your in- 
terests your rights will be altogether ignored. 
This seems to be the case. One might just as 
well be a British subject, or any other subject, as 
a citizen of the United States. One may as well 
be extremely unfit for the position they hold as to 
understand their business thorOly, or a confirmed 
sot as a respectable citizen, if you are a friend of 
the head of your department or have a political 



at Panama 



79 



pull. You will receive a higher salary, which also 
means better quarters. You will, in open disre- 
gard of precedence, or fitness, or citizenship of 
the United States be placed over the heads of 
those entitled to be advanced and receive twice 
the sick leave. It is generally understood that if 
you are not a friend of the head of your depart- 
ment the only way to get fair treatment, usually, 
is thru your senator or congressman. When I 
go on my vacation I will see what I can do. 

The chief engineer was ordered to Washington 
in January and the assistant chief acted for him 
in his absence. When the plan for the work of 
our division for the coming year was presented to 
him he slashed his pencil thru it and ordered the 
office force cut down to a chief clerk and office 
boy and the gaging stations closed. Thus most 
of us were scattered about the Isthmus in vari- 
ous directions and it looked as if the division 
would be abolished. I have never learned his 
reason for this action. If he did not like the 
plan he threw every one out except those who 
designed it—the chief clerk and his friend. They 
had arranged that the c. c. should be called su- 
perintendent of office and have his salary raised 
to $200 a month. Mr. Burrill was to be chief 
clerk and receive $150 a month. This gave them 
each an advance of $50. Being a tenderfoot as 
to Isthmian customs, I was confused by the 
whirlwind and distressed. Others, longer in the 
service, laughed, and told me not to mind a little 
thing like that. The head of our division tried 
to do the best he could for us all. Understanding 
that they wanted a stenographer at Ancon Hos- 



8o Light on Dark Places 






pital, he sent me to the acting director of hos- 
pitals to see about it. I objected to leaving the 
engineering department, but not knowing what 
else to do, went to see about the place at Ancon 
and found it was at Colon Hospital, the other 
side of the Isthmus. Then I cared less for it, but 
was persuaded to "just go and see about it." 
Much against my will I traveled over to Colon 
on the celebrated Panama Railroad and arrived 
covered with dirt and cinders. 1 carried a rec- 
ommendation signed by Mr. Arango, but dictated 
by the chief clerk. This was not the first recom- 
mendation he wrote. That I refused to accept, 
for it was so ridiculously untruthful. One of the 
fabrications was that I had been with them nearly 
a year. 

When I reached Colon Hospital I had an in- 
terview with the superintendent and asked him 
what the work was. He said the chief clerk 
would tell me all about that. The chief clerk told 
me nothing whatever about it, but we agreed if 
I decided to take the position I would let her 
know in two or three days. I never had any de- 
sire to work in an institution and have none now. 
When I returned to Panama I told Mr. Arango 
I was not going to take the position if I could 
possibly find anything else within two or three 
days. I learned afterward that they had been 
trying to find some one for a long time and 
could not. I said, "I suppose I do not dare to 
stay here until I find something else because Mr. 
Sullivan would not allow it." He said, "Go down 
and see Mr. Sullivan yourself and perhaps he 
will be willing to allow you to stay until you find 



at Panama 8i 

a position that suits you." I immediately started 
for the door, but was headed off by the chief 
clerk, who said, "Mr. Sullivan is away this after- 
noon." I believed him and returned to my desk. 
Later developments lead me to think that Mr. 
Sullivan was there, but the clerk did not wish me 
to talk with him. 

Next morning the chief clerk of another de- 
partment, at the request of a friend of mine, sent 
word to Mr. Arango that he wanted to see him 
personally about having a stenographer sent 
down to fill the position of a young man who 
had just died. Our chief clerk immediately 
stepped up and said, "I will send Vernon down 
there." "He wants to see Mr. Arango person- 
ally," said the messenger. This was a $125 posi- 
tion. "There is no need of your going down, 
Mr. Arango, I will send Vernon to that position," 
said the chief clerk. Vernon, by the way, is an 
Englishman. It transpired afterward that he 
asked to see Mr. Arango personally because he 
wished to make special request that I be trans- 
ferred to that position. With much reluctance I 
departed for Colon Hospital, but believing that I 
could soon return to engineering because I knew 
that stenographers experienced in engineering 
work were very much needed. I have learned 
since, of what I was then ignorant, that the Su- 
perintendent of Labor & Quarters cares nothing 
whatever whether he places people in positions 
suitable for them or not. I mailed the following 
letter to Mr. Stevens, marked personal, just as 
soon as he returned to the Isthmus : 



82 Light on Dark Places 

COPY. 

Colon Hospital, 
February 4, 1906. 
Mr. John F. Stevens, 

Chief Engineer. 
Sir: 

On December 1st I had the honor to be ap- 
pointed by you as stenographer to Mr. Arango, 
Division of Meteorology and River Hydraulics. 

During your absence a sweeping cut was or- 
dered in this division and every stenographer 
was transferred. 

I am in the office at Colon Hospital. I did 
not wish to come here. I do not wish to remain 
here. I have so informed the superintendent, who 
has agreed to sign my transfer at any time. 

I am doing nothing but the work of a copyist, 
which any typewritist could do who had not a 
year's experience, and who knew nothing at all 
about stenography. Therefore my long experi- 
ence, especially in engineering work, is benefiting 
no one. 

Since being hired by you I have received my 
rating from Washington for the U. S. Civil Serv- 
ice examination I took last October with the in- 
tention of having a position on the Isthmus. I 
have passed nearly ten per cent above the re- 
quired percentage. 

I earnestly and respectfully request that I be 
reinstated in the Engineering Department at an 
early date. Very respectfully. 

This letter did not even receive the courtesy 
of a refusal. I afterwards took a day off and 



at Panama 83 

went to Panama hoping to see Mr. Sullivan, but 
was told he was in Empire. I asked Mr. Stev- 
ens' private secretary why above application was 
not answered and he said he had never seen it 
and thought it must have been lost in the mail, 
perhaps Jackson Smith had it, etc. 

The largest part of Colon Hospital is built in 
the ocean and it also extends a considerable dis- 
tance on the opposite side of the drive. It has 
been necessary to continually enlarge it. The 
superintendent is naval officer, which is a neces- 
sary qualification for the position. Tho he were 
to leave the next doctor in authority would not 
be advanced because he is a civilian. Generally 
in the hospital when a vacancy occurs the person 
next below is advanced. This should be the 
practice in all departments on the Isthmus, but it 
is not. I heard much about the kindness and 
consideration of the superintendent for every- 
body before I went to the hospital. The report 
was true, the office, however, saw little of him, 
his time being spent in the operating room, wards, 
grounds, etc. My initiatory work at the hos- 
pital office consisted of making seven copies of 
endless columns of figures that had been accu- 
mulating for some time on paper too heavy to 
make three good copies. • This continued for 
three days ; then I told the chief clerk that I had 
been informed they wanted a stenographer and 
had taken the position with that understanding. 
She said there was no stenography; then I went 
to the superintendent and told him I did not want 
the position. He said he was very sorry and 
that he would sign a transfer as soon as I could 



84 Light on Dark Places 

get one, that he had asked for a stenographer be- 
cause there was no copyist mentioned in the list 
of government employes and they wanted some 
one who could run a typewriter. 

I applied to all the engineers on the Isthmus, I 
think, but the division engineer at Cristobal was 
the only one who said he would hire me. Two 
others said they would like to, but it would not 
be possible to get quarters for me. I afterwards 
learned that Mr. Maltby values experienced 
workers, as business men do, and tries to get 
them, and that there are fewer mistakes made in 
his office than any other on the Zone; also there 
was never the trouble with his people about re- 
turning their tools, etc., as there was in other 
departments. He is said to be about the only 
engineer on the Isthmus in a very responsible 
position who really is an engineer ; that he worked 
his way thru college, etc. He wrote me he had 
sent my application to Mr. Jackson Smith, Super- 
intendent of Labor and Quarters, requesting him 
to appoint me to the position in his office, and 
that it rested with him to do so. I did not think 
it necessary, but wrote Mr. Smith, telling of my 
experience in engineering work and my great 
desire to be transferred. He wrote me that he 
had appointed some one else to the vacancy in 
Mr. Maltby's office before he asked for me. 
Some time afterward Mr. Maltby sent to the 
States for an experienced stenographer, a lady. 
I went up to the office to see her, and, meeting 
Mr. Maltby, thanked him for trying to hire me 
when he did. I then learned that Mr. Smith had 
written him that I was already transferred. 



at Panama 85 

The hospital force consisted of the head clerk, 
who, I was told, came down as a friend of the 
head nurse and worked three months for nothing 
to get experience, another little girl who was 
just beginning, a man and myself. Each re- 
ceived $100 per month, except the head clerk, 
who received $125. I think the lowest salaries on 
the Isthmus were paid in the Colon Hospital 
office. We had to work legal holidays and half 
a day every other Sunday as well as every day. 
In speaking of the fact that almost all of the 
people in clerical positions on the Isthmus were 
very inexperienced or very incompetent to the 
judge at Cristobal later, he said he did not think 
there ever would be many first-class workers in 
that line on the Isthmus because there was noth- 
ing to attract them. There isn't; and there is 
everything to astonish, exasperate and repel them, 
and when experienced women apply they will not 
hire them. About this time President Roosevelt 
made a rule that no one was to be appointed who 
had not passed an examination and examinations 
were held on the Istnmus, the printed notices of 
which specially stated that they would not make 
those taking them eligible for positions anywhere 
else under the government. This proves that 
these examinations do not amount to much, and 
I do not think above-mentioned rule hindered the 
heads of departments in the least from engaging 
their friends without passing examinations. 

After being at the hospital a month I realized 
that I might write applications for years, resign, 
leave the Isthmus, and the government be at the 
expense of sending down another stenographer, 



86 Light on* Dark Places 

but unless some influential person interceded for 
me I would never be transferred. 

Table board at the hospital and at the Wash- 
ington Hotel cost the same, $25 a month. I had 
gone to the hotel as I thought by so doing I 
might hear of a position elsewhere. I applied in 
vain for the many I heard of, and at last, feeling 
desperate, one evening, after dinner, I went to 
Judge Collins and asked if I might have the 
favor of an interview with him when it was con- 
venient. He said, "Yes, come to my house to- 
morrow evening after dinner." His daughter 
then directed me to the house. "Who can say 
that fortune grieves him, when the star of hope 
she leaves him?" At the appointed evening I 
started for the residence of Judge Collins with 
my Civil Service rating and letters of recommen- 
dation. I told him of my experience on the 
Isthmus and that the superintendent of the hos- 
pital was willing to sign my transfer, but that I 
was convinced that unless some one helped me I 
never would be transferred. I would have liked 
to have told him under what difficulties I had 
struggled to take the supposedly necessary Civil 
Service examination, but was afraid I might bore 
him if I talked too much. When I had finished 
and breathlessly awaited his verdict, he said, 
"Now tell me, would you like to go back to 
Panama, or along the line, or work in Cristobal ? 
I know them all and I will speak for you to 
whichever one you prefer." My relief at his 
kind question threw me into a state of mental con- 
fusion and I could not decide where I did want 
to go. Finally he said, "How would you like to 



at Panama 87 

work for the Chief of the Division of Material 
and Supplies?" He has a very pleasant office 
at Cristobal" Had I thought I would have said 
I prefer Mr. Maltby, as he is an engineer, but the 
dominant idea in my mind was, "He is so kind I 
will give him as little trouble as possible." Mr. 
Tubby eats at the same table Judge Collins does 
at the Washington Hotel, so I said, "Yes, I will 
be grateful if you will ask Mr. Tubby." Then a 
lady and gentleman called and Mrs. Collins came 
in to receive them. The judge introduced me to 
her and to them. During the conversation the 
lady said she thought Panama was such a beauti- 
ful city. I thought she was joking, but her face 
showed her to be serious. I asked her what other 
cities she had seen. She said none but Colon, she 
was born in Panama. Everything is comparative, 
you know. At the appointed time I again called 
on Judge Collins and he said that he had seen 
Mr. Tubby, who said his was a very busy office 
and he would be glad to take on three or four 
more stenographers if he could get them, and 
for me to call on him. I did so, and after nearly 
a month's delay in securing sanction from Ancon 
of my transfer I was appointed stenographer in 
the Division of Material and Supplies at Cristo- 
bal. 

The second month at the hospital, thinking it 
would be but a week at farthest before I left 
Colon, I asked a Jamaican lady whose husband 
works for the Panama Railroad Company, if she 
would do me the favor to board me for a week 
or less. This she did, and the week dragged out 
to a month, but she was very gracious about it. 



88 Light on Dark Places 

One day when boarding with this lady the 
manager of the government mess at Cristobal 
dined there. He advised me to continue boarding 
with this lady rather than at the government 
mess, even tho that would necessitate my travel- 
ing about a mile and a quarter each way for my 
meals ! I wondered if he were slightly demented. 
Imagine a man condemning his own manage- 
ment! He said he could not get cooks and the 
food itself was very inferior. Think of that 
when they charge $27 a month at the government 
mess, and the ordinary price for table board is 
$25. I could not understand this, but that was 
before I had learned many things. 

I did not receive $125 for my second months' 
work as I had been promised, and hearing all 
the employes Mr. Sullivan transferred were re- 
ferred to him when they tried to see Mr. Stevens, 
wrote him. 

Following is his reply with enclosure from 
the secretary of the chief engineer: 

COPY. 

Empire, March 12, 1906. 
Miss Mary A. Chatfield, 
Colon Hospital, Colon. 
Dear Madam: 

I have your letter of March the 3d, and in re- 
ply I beg to say that just at present I am unable 
to say to you whether or not we would have 
work for you in the Engineering Department. 

Referring to the $25 that you claim for salary 
for January, I beg to call your attention to the 
attached letter from Mr. E. P. Brannan, secre- 



at Panama 89 

tary to the chief engineer. Under the circum- 
stances I am very sorry to have to say that I 
can do nothing for you in this matter. 

Yours truly, 

J. G. Sullivan, 

'Assistant Chief Engineer. 

COPY, 

Panama, March 10, 1906. 
Mr. J. G. Sullivan, 

Assistant Chief Engineer, 
Empire. 
My dear Mr. Sullivan : 

Referring to your letter of March 9th and re- 
turning papers relative to claim of Miss Mary A. 
Chatfield for $25 still due her on her Janu- 
ary salary, which, she states, was the increase 
promised her. 

In reply I beg to say that I am advised that 
no definite promise was made by Mr. Arango or 
his office that her salary would be increased to 
$125, but she was given to understand that if 
the organization, of which you are conversant, as 
submitted by Mr. Arango, was put thru, that she 
would be increased to $125 per month, but as 
this organization was not put into effect, she did 
not get the expected increase. 

Under these circumstances I do not think that 
we can do anything for her. 

Respectfully, 

E. P. Brannan, 
Secretary to the Chief Engineer. 

Upon receiving this answer I wrote the chief 



90 Light on Dark Places 

clerk of the Division of Meteorology and River 
Hydraulics the following letter, sending a copy 
to the assistant chief engineer and the receipted 
bill from the Hotel Central. I send you copy of 
the bill, also of the unsigned notification they 
sent me regarding my January pay check : 

COPY. 

HOTEL CENTRAL, 

Panama. 

Mary A. Chatfield. Debe. 

Star & Herald, 6826. 

Enero 2/10, Su pension $64.00 

I bot. vichy 1.00 



$65.00 
Panama, 10 Enero, 1906. 
Received, 

Hnueiiman. 

FACSIMILE. 

Panama, February 5, 1906. 

Miss Mary A. Chatfield, 
Colon Hospital, 

Cristobal, C. Z. 

Dear Melle: 

I be to hand you herwith your January Pay 
Certificate No. 15534, kindly sign this and re- 
turne same to this office. 

Very respectfull, 

Division Engineer. 



at Panama 91 

COPY. 

Colon Hospital, 
Cristobal, March 17, 1906. 
Mr. D. W. MacRae, 

Chief Clerk, Division M. and R. H., 
Ancon, Canal Zone. 
Sir: 

I beg to inform you that the reply of the as- 
sistant chief engineer to my request that the $25 
still due on my January salary be paid contained 
a letter from Mr. Brannan, the second para- 
graph of which reads as follows: 

"In reply I beg to say that I am advised that 
no definite promise was made by Mr. Arango or 
his office that her salary would be increased to 
$125, but she was given to understand that if 
the organization, of which you are conversant, as 
submitted by Mr. Arango, was put through, that 
she would be increased to $125 per month, but 
as this organization was not put into effect, she 
did not get the expected increase." 

I, therefore, desire to recall to your recollec- 
tion that on December 1, 1905, after I had ap- 
plied to Mr. Stevens for a position and Mr. 
Brannan had taken me to Mr. Arango's office, 
you made the following arrangement with me : 

I. That I was to begin working at the rate 
of $100 per month, tho I objected to so low a 
figure (the offering of which caused me consid- 
erable surprise as you informed me that you had 
just sent to Washington requesting that "A 
stenographer of wide experience" be sent to you. 
A day or two after my installation in the office 
Mr. Arango told you, in my presence, to write 



92 Light on Dark Places 

and cancel the request as the position was satis- 
factorily filled on the Isthmus), but that the 
raise in my salary would be prompt. You said, 
"We will raise just as soon as we see that you 
are an experienced stenographer." I fully ex- 
pected that the raise would be made before the 
1st of January, as I have never known or heard 
that it required a month to ascertain whether a 
stenographer was experienced. 

2. Again, shortly after the ist of January you 
made a definite and positive statement when I 
asked you at what date I could feel sure my sal- 
ary was $125 a month. You said, "It will be 
dated back from the 1st of January!' I then 
stated, as you cannot fail to remember, that I 
particularly wished to know when I could feel 
sure my salary was increased to that amount, 
because when I could do so I intended to move 
to the Hotel Central. You will undoubtedly re- 
call that I did move to the Hotel Central and that 
when I inquired of you where I could find an ex- 
pressman to move my trunks you sent Juan to 
find one. Referring to my receipted bill, I find 
that I stayed at the Central eight days, after 
which, finding I received less attention, tho I 
paid more money, I moved to another boarding 
house. 

3. Again, later, I asked you if a stenographer 
of my experience was not entitled to $150 a 
month, especially considering that $125 was paid 
to so many inexperienced stenographers and to 
those who had never passed a United States Civil 
Service examination; that from what I had read 
in printed matter sent out from Washington I 



at Panama 



93 



had not doubted that my salary would be $150 
a month. You replied that but one stenographer 
had been sent from Washington at $150 a month 
and you did not think that salary would be gen- 
erally received by stenographers. I then said, "I 
thmk they send out very deceiving statements 
from Washington." 

On every one of these occasions your state- 
ments and mine were positive and definite. 

I beg to recall to your memory that the "Or- 
ganization," "as submitted by Mr. 

Arango," etc., was never mentioned by you to 
me, nor was it mentioned to me by any one else. 
I received my first knowledge of the existence of 
this organization by the short letter which Mr. 
Arango dictated to me to accompany it when he 
presented it to Mr. Sullivan. I was then abso- 
lutely ignorant of its contents until I discovered 
a typewritten copy of it in the basket where Mr. 
Arango's letters and papers were put to be filed, 
after its presentation. 

I am sending a copy of this letter to Mr. 
Sullivan and again requesting the payment of the 
$25 still due on my January salary. 
Very respectfully, 

Mary A. Chatfield. 

I have received no reply from Mr. Sullivan, 
but four different friends, or acquaintances, have 
reported to me what they knew of the result of 
my letters. I also wrote a few lines to Mr. 
Arango asking him to read the letter I sent to 
Mr. MacRae. As soon as Mr. MacRae received 
my letter he rushed up to Ancon Hospital to ask 



94 Light on Dark Places 

his adviser, Mr. Burrill, who was recovering 
from some operation, what he should do. He 
then returned and wrote something to this effect, 
addressing it to Mr. Arango : 

That he told me that if I could prove that I 
could do the work of a man receiving $125 that 
I would be paid the same figure ; that he told me 
he expected to recommend an increase as plans 
had been made awaiting the approval of the chief 
engineer for an increase in the work of the divi- 
sion; that he had purposely kept me "in the 
dark" about the re-organization of the division, 
as from one or two small things he had heard I 
did not keep my "mouth shut" inside and outside 
the office. In the recommendation he dictated 
for me to take to the director of hospitals he 
stated, "her work has given the greatest satisfac- 
tion in every way." 

Tho Mr. Sullivan did not answer me, I am told 
he appeared suddenly one day about this time in 
the office of the Division of Meteorology and 
River Hydraulics and found fault with every- 
thing that was being done and with everything 
that ever had been done and completed his visit 
by cutting down Mr. MacRae's salary from $150 
to $125 per month. As soon as he had departed 
the bereaved Mr. MacRae went weeping to his 
friend, the secretary of the chief engineer, and 
told his tale of woe, who told Mr. Stevens, who 
reinstated him in his former salary, viz., $150 
per month. "Off again, on again, Finnegan." 

In addition to the unwelcome transfer imagine 
my disgust when I reached the station at being 
informed I must pay $4.40 gold for my baggage 



at Panama 



95 



because by an oversight the words "And bag- 
gage" had been omitted from my pass. Just 
fancy, there is no baggage allowed on a ticket or 
a pass on the Panama Railroad. Passengers have 
to pay 2 cents a pound gold for their baggage. 
Then the porter demanded 30 cents gold addi- 
tional for allowing my trunks to stand in the 
baggage room from 8 o'clock A, M. until 1 
o'clock P. M. the same day. I had not money 
enough with me to settle, so had to leave one 
trunk and then had to borrow 60 cents from an 
acquaintance. I have since learned it is the cus- 
tom of the Panama Railroad to treat people in 
this way. 

I enclose a post card picture of myself and a 
distant cousin whom I met on the Isthmus. Don't 
you think we look alike? 

I also enclose the letter of the other stenog- 
rapher from whom I borrowed the money at the 
station. You see he is not popular with the c. c. 
and his friends — is not their style. He goes 
home every Saturday night and spends Sunday 
with his wife. They have a small coffee and 
cocoa plantation and until he is given quarters his 
wife has to stay on the plantation. 

Empire, February 8, 1906. 
Dear Miss Chatfield: 

Your favor of the 6th instant just to hand; I 
wish to thank you for your kindness. Am not 
sure, but fancy I have got the better of you, be- 
ing under the impression it was 60 cents. How- 
ever, if you do not grumble I shall not. I rather 
fancy you could make the railroad return you 



g6 Light on Dark Places 

the money they robbed you of, at any rate it 
might be worth trying for. I read in the Journal 
that Mr. J. F. Stevens was back at his office 
again. I saw Martin yesterday and he gave me 
the impression that he was calling on you be- 
fore he left for New York. Was in the office 
yesterday, but Burrill would hardly look at me. 
Wait a bit, he might perhaps strike Empire one 
of these Sundays, but not the smell of a cup of 
coffee would I give him. They never sent me my 
pay cheque ; it cost me $3 tin money to go in for 
it. I asked him why he had not sent it and he 
replied that he was holding it until I came in 
for it. I start outdoor work to-morrow of some 
kind, don't know what it is yet ; am acting as a 
stenographer whilst Mr. Wood's man is sick, 
but he will be back in the morning. Have had a 
room assigned me about 6 square feet, not room 
to swing round in. Will be unable to get a 
house for another month at least, so Mrs. Pierce 
must stay up at the plantation till then. When 
I do get a house shall be delighted to have you 
up with us. 

If I were you I should apply direct to Jackson 
Smith, or, better still, the great John F. S., stat- 
ing the facts of the case and request a transfer as 
stenographer ; sorry you are in such a poor place. 
This is MacRae's handiwork again; they man- 
aged to get rid of us very nicely, but the laugh 
will, I hope, soon be on the other foot. Should 
I hear of a position suitable for you, will hold 
it down if I have half a chance. 

Hoping to hear from you again, and trusting 
you will soon obtain a settled position, 




Isthmian and tropical and simian. 



Facing page 91 



at Panama 97 

Believe me, with every good wish, 

W. Pierce. 

It is amusing to read the comments of the 
different friends to whom I have sent this pic- 
ture. One of them, telling me to be sure to 
come to see her, says, "But don't you dare come 
to my house with that monkey in your arms." 
Another, "I like your picture and that of the 
little monkey so well that I have pinned it on 
the wall to have it where I can see it. Is it a 
friend of yours?" Another, "I suppose that is a 
dirty little monkey you have under your arm. I 
do not envy you the pleasure, dear." Another, 
"Be sure and bring the other monkey with you 
when you come home." 

Those are feminine comments, the following is 
a masculine: "I have your letter of March 17th 
and also the picture of yourself and him or her 
whom you designate as your little cousin. You 
certainly look very tropical under the cocoanut 
tree or palm tree, whichever it is, and if it is 
the custom to go wandering about with snakes 
or monkeys I believe it is a very bad place for 
those of us in the north who use intoxicating 
liquors." His belief is correct. 

Of course, you have seen this letter from the 
President on the cover of "Everybody's": 

The White House, 
Washington, January 11, 1906. • 
To the Officers and Employes of the Government 
and especially of the Isthmian Canal Com- 
mission on the Isthmus of Panama : 
I desire that you give the fullest information 



98 Light on Dark Places 

to Mr. Lindsay Denison, the representative of 
"Everybody's Magazine," who is about to visit 
the Isthmus, concerning what has been done and 
what is being done on the canal. I desire that 
he be told the whole truth, no matter whether it 
hurts or not; and so long as it is the truth and 
not distorted, I shall see that no man is harmed 
in any way for telling it. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

I was talking it over with other employes last 
night and said, "Everybody must be guided by 
that letter and give information about the many 
things that are wrong, especially the bad food, at 
the government hotels." These men said, "That 
is all very well. The president is sincere, but he 
is not able to stand back of what he says. If any 
man were to report anything against the heads 
of the departments here he would be discharged 
at once and the president could not save him." 
You see where the trouble lies. The men are 
afraid. They said they were considering meet- 
ing the president when he comes to the Isthmus, 
a whole lot of them, and telling him about the 
food. I hope they will, but fear it will fall thru. 
I do not believe in violence, as a rule, but if the 
men who are stealing on this food business were 
lynched — no, lynching would be entirely too good 
for them. They ought to be tried with the great- 
est deliberation and consideration of every de- 
tail, receive a life sentence and be fed on such 
food as is served at the government hotels. That 
would be far worse than lynching. 

Colon is full of little Chinese shops and I am 



at Panama 99 

going to try and get you a picture of one. They 
have shelves from the floor to the ceiling on three 
sides and most of them are enclosed in glass; for 
the reason, I presume, that it protects to a great 
extent, silks and all other goods injured by the 
moist atmosphere. Like the Chinese merchants 
in Panama, they carry many beautiful goods, and 
I would send presents to you and others, but so 
many of the other employes tell me their friends 
have had to pay just as much duty as the cost of 
the gift. Many men at Panama, Christmas-time, 
sent their sisters and other girls silk kimonos and 
the happy and unhappy recipients in all cases 
had to pay heavy duty. Almost all the Chinese 
stores carry groceries and in one corner liquors, 
principally rum. I hear many dreadful stories 
of the terrible quality of this rum and the results 
of drinking such awful stuff. It is drank prin- 
cipally by negro laborers and natives and is so 
injurious that the sale should be prohibited. It 
is called rum, but should be called poison. Then 
there is the great Panama Railroad commissary, 
which you have read more or less about in the 
newspapers. 

There is an endless amount of things I want to 
write you, but I have not time now, so just enjoy 
this until the next one comes. 

Sincerely yours, 

Yes, it is true that when Spaniards write to a 
lady they close the letter with, "I kiss your feet" 
or "I throw myself at your feet," or some such 
superlative expression, the English equivalent of 
which in such a case is "Yours sincerely." In 

tor* 



ioo Light on Dark Places 

closing a letter to a gentleman they write, "I kiss 
your hands." Miss Johnson told us that when 
she wrote letters to Egyptian officials she was 
obliged to close them with the expression, "From 
the worm that crawls beneath your feet." Natu- 
rally, she did not like to write servile rubbish, but 
if she had not done so her requests would not 
have been considered, for that is their degraded 
custom. 

Cristobal, June 30, 1906. 
Your letter received and your sympathy, in- 
dignation, etc., appreciated. You need not worry 
in the least about me, for I am quite well. Most 
of the women on the Isthmus are well. The few 
who are very sick would have been sick any- 
where, I think. You know some women are sick 
all the time more or less. If it were not for the 
bad food served at the government hotels and 
drinking there would be far less sickness than 
there is. As it is the health of men down here 
is not as good as that of women. Really, I sym- 
pathize with them to a great extent regarding 
their drinking. Do not be shocked, but listen to 
my explanation. The food served is not fit to 
eat and just to sit down and look at it is enough 
to make any one go out and get drunk. Most of 
the men here are unmarried and many that are 
married cannot get quarters for their families 
and they have to eat at the government hotels. 
They are not even allowed to make a cup of tea 
in their rooms. Official orders prohibiting cook- 
ing in bachelor quarters are periodically issued. 
I, being in married quarters, may have a little oil 



at Panama ioi 

stove, so I make myself a nice cup of ten when I 
choose, and ice water, but before buying an ice 
box I had no way of getting a drink. I tried 
several times to get ice water in the evenings at 
the government hotel, but there was none except 
just at meal times. Do you wonder that the men 
go to the saloons? I asked for an ice box, but 
was informed that no one but married people 
were furnished with ice boxes, so I bought one 
at the commissary. The married people in the 
house had lots of fun over the refusal and told 
me I must get married, but I declined to do so 
just to get a little snide ice box. This was 
brought to the house, but they refused to carry 
it upstairs. I complained to the manager of the 
commissary, Mr. Burnett, but he informed me 
that those were his orders. 

You ask what sort of people are here. There 
are all sorts of people here; lots of them wanted 
by the police in other parts of the world, and 
such arrests have been made. Lots of people are 
here under assumed names, and lots of spend- 
thrifts and deadbeats. Some men have borrowed 
so much from their friends and acquaintances 
here they could not get trusted for 5 cents. We 
have three quite prominent "society" ladies here 
whose husbands fit the last description, yet they 
are among the best dressed women here and 
habitually appear in silk stockings. The two 
principal reasons why there are so many unde- 
sirable people here are, first, it is the policy of 
the Isthmian Canal Commission to prevent nice 
women from coming here, and, of course, any 
place where good women are scarce is always a 



102 Light on Dark Places 

tough place. According to what the married 
women tell me there are legions of fast women 
here, and there are plenty to be seen on the 
streets. One of the married ladies told me that 
the plan of building government quarters for 
these women had actually been considered and 
she thought if they did every respectable woman 
had better go away somewhere and die. The 
other reason is that good workmen coming here 
and finding they have not a fair chance with 
favorites leave. Numbers of business women 
have applied for positions here. Four of my own 
friends, all experienced stenographers, have done 
so. I have tried to get positions for them in 
offices where I knew they were working night 
after night because of an inadequate force, but 
always the same reply — "It is not the policy of 
the commission to hire women." I hear of other 
applications from women continually; many men 
have tried to get positions for their sisters, but 
they are always refused. Aliens, sots, sharpers, 
any old thing, will be given a position in an 
office by the Isthmian Canal Commission, any- 
thing but an American woman. No American 
women have been exempted from taxation for 
this canal, neither have the fathers, brothers, rela- 
tives or friends of the working women of the 
United States, and how they can allow women to 
be refused work here I cannot understand. Our 
desire and hope is to get the larger salaries we 
should receive in this climate to keep us out of 
the poorhouse when we get too old to work and 
we should be encouraged, not refused. There are 



at Panama 103 

some very nice people here, but not the same ratio 
as in ordinary places. 

When I worked at Colon Hospital there was 
a young man brought down unconscious from 
Gorgona. He had contracted pernicious malaria, 
and being a Christian Scientist, had refused to 
take medicine. When he lapsed into unconscious- 
ness the doctor at Gorgona sent him to the hos- 
pital. They injected quinine and did everything 
they could to save him, but he never recovered. 
The prevailing illness is malaria ; one of the most 
fatal, pneumonia. Yellow fever, smallpox, etc., 
tho sometimes epidemic, are nothing in compari- 
son to pernicious malaria, which often means 
death. Many and many were the corpses I saw 
carried past the office wnen I worked in the hos- 
pital. The majority of the victims of malaria are 
the negro laborers, who work for the munificent 
wage of 10 cents an hour U. S. currency, 20 cents 
Panamanian, which is deducted during illness or 
absence of any kind. 

I never knew night work to have anything but 
a bad effect on anybody when carried to excess 
even in a healthy climate. What do you think, 
then, when I tell you that in the office where I 
am now, until about a week after I came, every 
man was called out every night to work until 1 1 
o'clock! This continued for weeks! The sec- 
ond day I worked there I went up in the evening 
to write a letter to my aunt and found one of 
the stenographers there who told me I had bet- 
ter not stay. I looked at him in astonishment and 
said, "What do you mean?" He said, "We have 
been working for weeks until 11 o'clock every 



104 Light on Dark Places 

night." I said, "They do not do that upstairs. 
Why don't you all protest?" He replied, "One 
man said he couldn't stand it, and if he was 
called out night and day, too, he would have to 
leave, and they let him leave, so that made more 
work for all the rest of us." Then he looked out 
the window and said, "Here comes the head man 
now." I said, "Here I go now, out the back door, 
or thru the window if necessary, to the tune of 
breaking glass." This also meant no extra com- 
pensation whatever. People on salaries, working 
for the government on the Isthmus, never re- 
ceive extra pay when working over time, nights, 
or holidays! 

I also enclose letter from the stenographer in 
Japan: 

COPY. 

Care Bluff Hotel, 
Yokohama, June 12, 1906. 
My dear Miss Chat field: 

I have been trying for some time to get off a 
few lines to you, but have been busy — was going 
to say exceptionally busy, but cannot say that as 
I am usually loafing. Have had a very easy posi- 
tion out here, as the man I work for lives in the 
country and has bad eyes, so in the winter time 
he used to take a train shortly after 3 and not 
come up until 9 130, but now I have much longer 
hours, but must not complain, for they are still 
comparatively short, and every Saturday after- 
noon off. Somehow or other, the past three 
weeks, my correspondence has piled up. I man- 
aged to get off a few postals of inquiry to some 



at Panama 105 

of my friends whom I thought would be affected 
by the fire, and have had letters from some of 
them, and they certainly had thrilling experiences. 
Last night I received a long letter from a friend 
who lived on Post Street, just across from the 
Jewish Club. She said she was awake when it 
happened and thought the end of the world had 
come — the house shook and trembled, and the 
cry of the people and the noise of falling build- 
ings were terrible. The chimney from the next 
house fell and crashed thru their house and a 
friend of ours was covered with brickbats, but 
not seriously injured, tho frightened to death, as 
she had not been awakened by the quake and said 
she would have possibly slept thru it had she 
not been buried by the bricks. They rushed out 
and walked the street, being afraid the house 
would fall in. Just as they reached the street 
they saw the Jewish Club fall down. The next 
day one of them ventured back and rescued two 
trunks, for which they had to pay $38 to have 
hauled away. Otherwise they lost everything; 
their house, which was a large one, burning the 
following morning at 9 A. M. They had a little 
insurance, which as yet they had not received. 

I spent eight very delightful months in Hono- 
lulu, and left there October 18th last, arriving 
here October 29th, Sunday morning. The fol- 
lowing week I secured a position with an attor- 
ney — an Englishman, who has been out here for 
over twenty years, and has a thoro knowledge of 
the Japanese language, and is married to a 
Japanese woman. I have a pleasant, sunny office, 
but no furniture, nor has any office here, to speak 



io6 Light* on Dark Places 

of, as all the buildings with few exceptions, are in 
old shacks. The Standard Oil has the best build- 
ing in town. The salaries here are quite good, 
principally $100 gold per month, a few get more, 
but some less. Then there is a possibility in some 
offices of making extra by doing outside work, 
and this I did a great deal last winter, but have 
not done much the past few months and feel the 
loss. However, to offset any extra you may make 
in addition to a good salary, living expenses, all 
reports to the contrary notwithstanding, are 
very high. I believe three years ago everything 
cost just about one-third of what it does now; 
but with the advent of peace and a big war debt 
to pay off, things have gone skyward and the 
foreign population are paying for the war. The 
ist of September a new import duty takes effect 
and necessaries for Europeans will be heavily 
taxed. There has been an influx of tourists never 
before heard of, and all the hotels and boarding 
houses have doubled their prices, as they have 
been full to overflowing, many people even stop- 
ping with Japs until they could get better accom- 
modations. You cannot get any kind of board 
and a nice room for less than between $40 and 
$50 per month, and rikisha fares are pretty high 
from the standpoint of a 5-cent fare, but I should 
think cheap from the standpoint of the man that 
"pulls"; 5 cents gold is the cheapest fare, and to 
go home where I live, which is on the bluff, 
where most white people live, is 10 cents gold, 
and this four times a day — which is necessary 
when k rains or snows, then extra fare, makes 



at Panama toy 

35 or 40 cents just to go to and from the office 
on wet days, and any extra tip is more. Many 
a day my fares amount to about 50 cents gold, 
but if one is a good pedestrian and does not mind 
dirt much, you can walk some and save money 
that way, but walking when it rains is out of the 
question, as the streets, which are not paved, are 
a sea of sticky mud and have no sidewalks. I 
would walk oftener nice weather, but you must 
walk in the middle of the road, and every one 
passing you in rikishas and carriages makes it 
unpleasant as they raise a dust materially and 
mentally. 

I cannot say that I regret coming here, but if 
I had not had a position I certainly would kick 
myself for spending so much for nothing. I 
should never advise anybody to come here for 
just what you can see, unless one has barrels of 
money and plenty of time — should rather go to 
Europe a hundred times, for there you get your 
money's worth. 

I have been quite satisfied so far, but I would 
not think of staying forever. While life is very 
easy, there being plenty of servants, I don't see 
why one should be waited upon hand and foot, 
and if there is anything good at Panama I may 
strike straight for there when I leave here. I 
have been quite unsettled as to just what direc- 
tion to take, and at times have thought that I 
would go from here down to Australia via a 
Japanese line of boats, which are very good and 
quite reasonable, and from there go over to 
South Africa — Cape Town, where, I understand, 



108 Light on Dark Places 

one can make a good salary and climate not so 
bad. However, I shall not be leaving until Sep- 
tember or October — hardly before October, so 
be sure to write me real soon and let me know 
what you think of the Isthmus or what you 
think of a trip with me to South Africa, tho I 
hardly know how we could take it together, for 
I could not advise you to take the enormous ex- 
pense of coming over here to start. But this all 
will be settled later. 

Yours sincerely, 

Gertrude Burton. 
P. S. — Please write me what you think of my 
coming down to Panama in November or Decem- 
ber of next year. G. B. 

The first part of this letter refers to the San 
Francisco earthquake. 

Here is an instance told me to-day by the chief 
clerk of one of the departments which illustrates 
the adherence to the Civil Service rules: The 
head of his department, wishing to have a friend 
of his come down who is a bookkeeper, wrote to 
the Isthmian Canal Commission requesting them 
to send him and at a larger salary than according 
to rule. To make a good appearance he also 
wrote the commission that the young man was 
an expert stenographer, because stenographers 
are needed on the Isthmus, when the truth is the 
man is not a stenographer at all. The commis- 
sion immediately replied consenting to send him. 

Thanks for the "Ladies' Home Journal" you 
sent me. I have read the "Ideas of a Plain 



at Panama 109 

Country Woman." Whenever I want to read 
something ridiculous I look for them. When 
the natives express their opinion of many of the 
men who come down here they say, "He is crazy 
with the heat." I say they haven't brains enough 
to go crazy and I think that is what is the matter 
with the author of the above ideas. I believe that 
said author and the author of "The Confessions 
of a Wife" are both men, making desperate ef- 
forts to guess at a woman's thoughts. 

The idea of that old woman sitting in a shel- 
tered home, as she represents herself to be, pro- 
tected by a liberal-minded husband who is will- 
ing she should have all the privileges imaginable, 
and preaching at women who have to go out and 
battle with the world — as the authoress of "The 
Long Day" expresses it, "Work or Starve," 
"Work or Starve" continually in their mental 
hearing, as tho they could help themselves. Any 
one reading her rubbish, if they could possibly 
be so devoid of sense, would think that women 
like to pound typewriters and stand behind coun- 
ters and other equally alluring pastimes. If she 
could see the number of brides that come to this 
roasting country and live for months in one 
room, which serves as kitchen, bedroom, parlor 
— patiently and impatiently waiting until better 
quarters are built — she would not think women 
are averse to marrying. I am sorry the old goose 
thinks it such a reprehensible thing that women 
who do not wish to marry (whom they can) 
should want a fair chance. She had better 
"Wander from her own fireside" with the 



no Light on Dark Places 

"Woman who toils" for a few months and get 
some understanding of her subject. Following 
is a clipping which, with a little addition, I 
think, will truly explain the lack of marrying to- 
day which "The Plain Country Woman" so de- 
plores: 

"Readers of the 'Woman's Magazine' have had 
lots of fun discussing the subject, 'Why Many 
Men do not Marry.' Applied to individual cases 
the question can be adequately answered by a 
good square look at the unfortunate." If they 
would change their statement from jest to earnest 
and say a good square look at the unfortunate's 
salary they would give the true reason, and if 
the "Plain Country Woman" would step up in 
line with Ida M. Tarbell and bring a few batter- 
ing rams to bear on the monopolies that are rob- 
bing the masses of millions, she might help them 
to get money enough to marry with. 

If you want to read a lot of deceiving non- 
sense read some of the magazine articles written 
about Panama by men who come down here and 
roost a few days and nights with plenty of 
money to obtain the best of everything on the 
Isthmus, and the inclination to swallow all the 
lies of those interested in deceiving the public, 
and with no opportunity, if they had the desire, 
to get into the ranks and learn the facts. 

Following is a copy of a letter whxh I find on 
my desk, evidently taken from the file and for- 
gotten to be replaced, which shows the skill of 
many of the stenographers employed on the 
Isthmus. Such specimens are every-day affairs; 



at Panama hi 

FACSIMILE 
COPY. 

Cristobal, May 23, 1906, 

File Misc. 658. 
Mr. W. G. Tubby, 

Chief Div. M. and S., 
Cristobal. 
Sir: 

Please find enclosed list of material left here 
May 7th, '06, for Harrington, and as per infor- 
mation attached on slip enclosed. 

I think you will find this material has been re- 
ceived by the Mechanical Storehouse and unless 
drawned out are still in stock at the present time. 
Very respectfully. 

The man who dictated and signed the letter is, 
of course, as brilliant as the stenographer or 
more so. It is possible that the stenographer may 
have known better than to say, "I think you will 
find this material has been received by the Me- 
chanical Storehouse and unless drawned out are 
still in stock at the present time," but some ste- 
nographers think that their dictations must be 
written exactly, no matter how illiterate the lan- 
guage of the dictator. Indeed down here in 
many cases it is the only way to have a peaceful 
time because there are so many dictators who do 
not know that they do not know and if a stenog- 
rapher corrects their mistakes they will call you 
and command you to correct your errors. 

I also enclose a letter from another girl in 
San Francisco describing the earthquake. It is 
most interesting, being her actual experience. 



ii2 Light on Dark Places 

COPY. 

Mill Valley, Marin County, California. 

May 9, 1906. 
Dear Mary : 

I had thought to hear from you before this 
and fear that you, too, had a shaking up when we 
did, for I know your part of the country is con- 
tinually subject to those freaks of nature. You 
have never mentioned in your letters any startling 
news about them so I take it for granted you 
have grown quite accustomed to their antics. I 
never thought anything about one and this re- 
cent one has made me aware of the fact that 
they can be very terrible. It is an awful sen- 
sation, especially if one is in bed, and most of us 
were on the morning of the 18th. There was a 
gentleman stopping at a neighbor's of ours, who 
had lived in Central America for many years, and 
he said he had never experienced anything quite 
so terrible in that line. Well, you wouldn't have 
known your old haunts after that quake. Nearly 
every chimney in the neighborhood was lying on 
the street, and several of our prominent edifices, 
such as the corner grocery store, etc., were flat 
on the ground. All this was but a small factor. 
Our house was not damaged very much and we 
did not feel the earthquake half as badly as the 
people who lived on the level streets. Our chim- 
ney fell into the back yard and everybody's else 
in the vicinity also fell into the yard, and every 
dish, vase and anything that happened to be 
hanging on the wall bounded to the floor. When 
we started to make a survey of the premises 
after the quake we had all we could do to enter 



at Panama 113 

the rooms for the debris on the floor. As I 
wrote before this was only a small factor as 
compared to the awful fire that followed it which 
swept 27 miles of our beautiful city; the largest 
fire of its kind in the history of the world. The 
number of people destroyed by the fire and the 
quake will never be known. Our house would 
never have gone if it were not for the villainous 
act of two rascals who deliberately set fire to the 
Alcazar Building on O'Farrell Street. They got 
off easily, however, and were only shot down 
after they had done their miserable work. The 
town was under martial law right after the quake 
and people were shot right and left in the streets 
for disobedience of orders, looting, etc. The 
morning after the quake droves of homeless peo- 
ple wandered about our streets with all their 
worldly possessions on their backs and they were 
pitiful sights with their blackened faces, and the 
little children were a more pitiful sight, half 
naked and some badly burned. We had all day 
to move away or get away from the fire, but we 
were all so confident and full of hope that it 
would be stopped, as it would have been if it were 
not for those devilish rascals. Then it was too 
late, for as soon as that building went, which was 
a regular fire trap, the whole part of the city 
adjacent and below went like wild fire and we 
had only time to take to our heels. Then, too, 
even during the day one could not hire an ex- 
press man for love or money. They charged ex- 
orbitant prices, ranging from $50 to $100 for 
delivering a trunk. Also people seemed to feel 
so disgusted at the turn of events that they didn't 



ii4 Light on Dark Places 

give a nang what happened. We saved just a 
few things that we could easily pack, for in such 
a case one can't lug very much when one is com- 
pelled to walk miles and miles to get away from 
the fire. My mother turned the door on Beauty, 
but I went bacK and got her and she was so 
scared to death and half panic-stricken that I 
was compelled to carry her all the way, and the 
little pup was an awful nuisance, though I didn't 
mind, and we dragged her wherever we went. 
That was three days, and the fourth day we 
found an empty flat near the park and with some 
other friends rented it. However, when we 
made our exit from the park where we had 
camped the three days previous, those square- 
headed, brass-buttoned reptiles issued an order 
to kill every dog in sight because they were 
afraid the city would run short of water and 
they could not afford to give any to animals when 
there were so many human beings to be consid- 
ered, and in that event the dogs might all turn 
crazy for want of same; and so they shot every 
dog in sight, including dear little Beauty. I was 
not present at the time ; I meandered away some- 
where when that, wilful murder occurred. As it 
turned out they received abundant water to sup- 
ply twice as many people and their act resulted 
to nothing greater than a wholesale slaughter of 
innocent pets. You may rest assured I will 
avenge the murder of Beauty on every brass- 
buttoned gazaver I run across the next 20 
years. You can't imagine how delightful camp 
life is. The first morning after the fire, I mean 
after we left home, we had whiskey and ginger 



at Panama 1x15 

snaps — the only delicacies the surrounding neigh- 
borhood offered. Such articles are not very ap- 
petizing when one is accustomed to quail on 
toast and the things that mother used to make; 
but I ate anything the next day and was grate- 
ful for it. 

My boss came to the city a week after and 
hunted me up and took me over here and has 
been acting in the capacity of a guardian angel 
ever since. I have been living quite royally con- 
sidering the general condition of things. Had a 
turkey dinner Sunday, then to crown the events 
of the most delightful day since the quake we 
had an auto ride and I tell you we just flew and 
he blew his silly horn at every old cow on the 
road. I meant to say before that I am staying at 
the chief's. There are a number of other people 
at the house and it is more of a house party than 
anything else. 

I forgot to mention some of the sights I wit- 
nessed during the disaster. After the quake 
every one made a bee line for the street and the 
sights there were appalling. Some of our neigh- 
bors looked quite grotesque in their morning 
attire. I saw one man running down the street 
at full speed clad in a sweater and a woman's 
skirt, others could not boast even that. Some 
women squealed by the hour and carried on aw- 
fully. There were a lot of drunken people on 
the streets who had evidently had a good time 
the night before. After martial law was de- 
clared they tried to get them off the streets and 
used no pains in getting them off. One incident 
in particular, where they got an express wagon 



n6 Light on Dark Places 

and deposited a drunken man therein, there hap- 
pened to be a drunken woman around and they 
just dumped her in and in doing so every stitch 
of her clothes fell off except her black corsets; 
then an officer came up and said there was a 
drunken Chinaman over the way and they threw 
him in with the others and went off and no 
doubt dumped them on some empty lot out of 
the district. Out at the park a man had a piano, 
evidently the only thing he rescued, and he played 
by the hour and had a crowd of young folks 
dancing around him. They also shot people 
down right and left for disobedience and used no 
discrimination. I saw one man walking along 
with a glass of whiskey under his arm and a 
guard came up to him and told him to drop it, 
that it was forbidden, and the man said he got 
it and was taking it to a sick sister, and the 
guard said it mattered not for what it was that 
he must throw it away, that was the order, and 
the man refused twice again and the third time 
the soldier shot him dead. There was also an 
arbitrary female who no doubt was used to hav- 
ing her own way at home and not used to martial 
law, and she was shot down because she refused 
to put out her camp fire at 9 o'clock. We were 
compelled to witness all sorts of scenes, both 
tragic and comical. 

My mother and father are stopping at present 
with friends near the park and will continue to 
do so until things have settled some, and I will 
stay over here for the time being. My mother 
and father, I believe, feel it more than I do be- 
cause they are so attached to the place, but it is 



at Panama HJ 

all past and is of no use to fret about it. Quakes 
never seem to cease now. We have one about 
every 24 hours. If it was not for the many ties 
I have here at present I would have a good mind 
to go to Panama and bunk with you. It will 
take many a long year to restore San Francisco 
to its former self and I have doubts if it will 
ever be. People seem to be pouring out daily 
for other parts of the United States for they are 
still in deadly fear of earthquakes. There are 
rumors in the air that the woman who predicted 
this disaster has predicted that the world will end 
on the 15th instant. If her prediction proves 
true we will meet sooner than we have antici- 
pated, but I am not a bit superstitious and do not 
take stock in such nonsense and hope to see you 
again as mortal to mortal before we reach im- 
mortality. 

Do write soon and let me hear from you. 
Yours ever, 

Lillian J. 

I have several other letters from San Fran- 
cisco, one from my aunt states that "Stanford 
University lost the memorial church, museum, 
gymnasium — all gone to smash." 

About my quarters, and quarters in general — * 
I enclose postal card picture showing the house 
where I lived and those near by. It is one of 
the old houses built by the French Company. It 
is made of wood. There are two fair-sized rooms 
and a small room upstairs and a place for a bath 
room, but no bath room. The same number of 
rooms downstairs. When I was quartered un- 



n8 Light on Dark Places 

der the roof I used to be waked up by the storms. 
It sounded as though some one was throwing 
boulders and trying to tear the boards off of the 
roof. 

The rainy season began over a month ago and 
then people began to drop. They are now admit- 
ting 75 a day to the hospital afflicted with ma- 
laria. I have not had malaria and I hope to es- 
cape it. About a week ago I took breakfast at 
the Cristobal Hotel and it gave me such a fear- 
ful fit of indigestion that I was sick abed two 
days. I knew the stuff might kill me when I 
ate it, but I was hungry. So many have the 
same experience and every now and then some 
one comes down with ptomain poisoning. 

Most of my clothes have given up the struggle 
with the atmosphere, etc., and are falling apart 
and I see nothing but steady sewing ahead of 
me out of office hours for at least a week. I 
have nothing left that is whole but a few "glad 
duds" which are altogether too dressy for the 
office. I have tried three dressmakers here and 
ripped out their work. Hereafter I shall do my 
sewing without the extra labor of ripping. 

Information about quarters, my position, and 
all the other things you have asked me about will 
have to wait until next time. 

Affectionately yours. 

Cristobal, C. Z., 
July 26, 1906. 
Dear Club: 

Responding to your strenuous orders for news, 



at Panama 119 

I beg to inform you that I will do my very best to 
comply. 

In answer to your first question as to whether 
I am yet receiving any more than 33 1-3 cents 
a day more than I was in New York, I have 
to inform you that I am NOT. When I first 
interviewed the head of this division about work- 
ing in his office I never doubted he would allow 
me to begin on the regular salary for stenograph- 
ers, viz., $125. Every stenographer the govern- 
ment sends down comes at $125 per month. I 
asked him if I would not start with this and he 
said, "Oh! no, I couldn't let you begin on that." 
I had a notion then and there to tell him I would 
not come. Imagine, when he had stated to Judge 
Collins that he would be glad to have three or 
four more stenographers if he could get them, 
and then he would not allow me to begin on the 
stenographer's salary. Then I remembered the 
Sunday work and the holiday work at the hos- 
pital and concluded that even if I must endure 
the bitter disappointment of not beginning on a 
stenographer's salary it would be better to 
change, especially considering that I had to do 
my own sewing, and come where I could have 
Sundays and holidays. You see it is impossible 
for me to avoid sewing on Sundays. I thought 
I would hang on until vacation time, so I said I 
would come on the day appointed. "But," I 
said, "Will it be long before my salary is raised?" 
He said, "Oh! no, a stenographer of your ex- 
perience will soon have her salary raised." So 
I left, stating that I would report for duty at 
the date mentioned. After I returned to the 



120 Light on Dark Places 

hospital, the more I thought about it, the more 
angry I became, recalling all I had endured in 
San Francisco to wait to take the Civil Service 
examination, the lack of the desired number of 
stenographers on the Isthmus, etc. Our govern- 
ment is going to great expense in San Francisco 
to take away naturalization papers from aliens, 
who took them to keep their positions, but wel- 
coming aliens to new positions on the Isthmus 
and refusing applications from hundreds of 
American women, citizens of the United States. 
When I wrote to Mr. Tubby, enclosing the con- 
sent of the superintendent of the hospital to my 
transfer, I added this paragraph : 

"I am greatly disappointed at not being al- 
lowed the regular Isthmian salary for a stenog- 
rapher. However, my short residence here has 
shown me that the better salaries in my work are 
given to those of less experience, many of them 
recently transferred from other lines of labor, 
such as motormen, policemen, etc., and others 
who have never passed a United States Civil 
Service examination. In addition to their lack 
of experience, numbers of them are foreigners, 
and I, a native of the United States, am com- 
pelled to see my country favoring aliens above 
its own citizens. I paid my passage here also; 
the government did not bear that expense for 
me." 

I could not understand this man's attitude. 
When I was talking to him I showed him that I 
had passed the Civil Service examination which, 
tho supposed to be a necessity, was in reality an 
unusual accomplishment by the stenographers 



at Panama 121 

employed on the Isthmus. "Oh!" he said, as- 
suming a jocular air, "they all could pass it." I 
would have liked to have said, "If they could 
why didn't they, as I did, and not come in sec- 
ond rate style?" A few days before I left the 
hospital the superintendent said to me, "We are 
not trying to get rid of anybody and I expect to 
see the director of hospitals in a few days and 
will tell him just what kind of a position you 
want." I thanked him for this kindness, but de- 
clined it because I had promised to report for 
duty at the Division of Material and Supplies. 
The confirmation of my transfer was so long in 
coming from Ancon that they wrote from Mr. 
Tubby's office to know when I was going to re- 
port for duty. When the required letter finally 
came I went to Cristobal, and found that tho 
so long expected no quarters had been re- 
quested for me. Also there was no machine pro- 
vided for me. I was placed at the desk of a man 
who was in the hospital, whose typewriter was 
broken. I had to space every line I wrote by 
turning the platen with my hand. In a few days 
I was put down in the shipping clerk's division, 
tho I had been told I was to be in Mr. Tubby's 
office. All the letters I write, and as far as I 
hear all the letters all the other stenographers in 
this room write, are in frantic search of missing 
goods. There is one man here who walks into 
the delinquents as tho the government material 
was literally his own. One of his stock phrases 
is, "Explain these glaring discrepancies," and 
they are glaring beyond all belief to any one who 
had not been down here and seen for themselves. 



122 Light on Dark Places 

This gentleman is nicknamed all along the line, 
"Glaring Discrepancies" and cordially hated, but 
if there were hundreds more like him this canal 
would be built with about one-tenth of the ex- 
pense. He is one of the few "real things" on 
the Isthmus, viz., an educated citizen of the 
United States, and tho so energetic he is a 
southerner — that is, he is from Kentucky. 

In telling some folks here of my disappoint- 
ment regarding my salary, imagine my astonish- 
ment when I told them what I had told Mr. 
Tubby about aliens receiving better treatment, to 
have them indulge in immoderate laughter. 
Finally responding to my indignant inquiries, 
they said, "He is an alien himself and so are 
his friends. Neither he nor they passed an ex- 
amination, and he has brought at least twenty- 
seven of them down here and placed them in the 
best positions over other people's heads ; disre- 
garding all rules of precedence." This man holds 
one of the best positions here, receiving $9,000 
a year, a fine house to live in and sporting a 
coach and span. "Well!" I gasped, "Is he a 
citizen of the United States, what is he any way?" 
They said he is a Canadian and they did not think 
a citizen of the United States. He was appointed 
by Mr. Shonts, the non-resident chairman of the 
Isthmian Canal Commission, who should be a 
resident, but who comes rushing down here once 
in awhile, changing the scheduled time of the 
steamers of the Panama Railroad Steamship 
Line when so disposed, to suit his personal con- 
venience. This Chief of the Division of Material 
and Supplies, until he condescended to favor the 



at Panama 123 

United States with his services on the Isthmus, 
worked for the Great Northern Railroad at a 
salary of $4,000 a year (some say $3,000). And 
I thought I was going to work under a native of 
the State of Maine! It seems that it was Mr. 
Tobey, the former Chief of the Division of Ma- 
terial and Supplies, who came from the State 
of Maine. Well, I am glad I wrote what I did, 
if, holding one of the best positions under the 
government of the United States, he is not a citi- 
zen of the United States, for he has no right 
there. If he were a citizen of the United States 
and had a right to hold such position he would 
agree with me. After receiving this information 
I resolved to write him again about my salary 
and other matters. "Stand, the ground's your 
own" (or it ought to be, which is quite different), 
and wrote him as follows: 

Cristobal, April 9, 1906. 
Mr. W. G. Tubby, 

Chief, Division of Material and Supplies. 
Sir: 

I respectfully request the following alterations 
at my quarters : 

That the glass windows be removed. They 
make the room stifling all day, even when there 
is a fine breeze on the porch, and keep it much 
too warm all night. I wish this might be done 
at once even tho longer mosquito netting (to 
cover the entire window, is not put on for some 
time or at all. 

The bath room on the second floor is not fitted 
as a bath room. May this be done? It is ver^ 



124 Light on Dark Places 

inconvenient to have to use the one downstairs. 
Mrs. Snow tells me that the only time it is pos- 
sible to get a bath is 5 o'clock in the morning, 
because there are so many people to use the one 
bath room. 

There is no light in this bath room, which 
makes it impossible to bathe there at night. 

There has been a family of Jamaicans in the 
room next to mine. There were three of them 
and a servant. In addition they kept three board- 
ers and used what should have been the upper 
bath room for a kitchen and servant's sleeping 
room. The amount of garbage and food about 
the narrow stairway kept it continually dirty and 
most unpleasant for the other occupants of the 
house. These people have moved to-day, but I 
mention this because the next family might do 
the same thing if the place is not fitted as a bath 
room — for which it was intended. The other 
occupants of the house tell me that they have 
complained once to the inspector, but knowing 
the people were going to move did not do so 
again. 

There is no closet or anything in my room to 
protect clothing from dust, not even a shelf over 
which I might hang a curtain. Am I entitled to 
a wardrobe? 

Also may I not have two corner shelves on 
which to stand bottles, a clock, etc.? 

There is no drinking water about the place but 
the rain water in the tank. May I not have a 
small ice box so that I can take ice ? I want this 
so much that rather than do without it I would 



at Panama 125 

buy one, but I do not want to buy anything I 
could not take away were I to leave. 

May I have a new typewriter as soon as a new 
one arrives ? I am using a broken one now which 
is very unpleasant. 

I respectfully request that I may be granted a 
raise in salary as soon as possible. Board is ex- 
pensive down here and so unsatisfactory that it 
is necessary to buy other things tnan those pro- 
vided, all the time. Also, I have to furnish my 
own bed linen and towels. I am receiving less 
here than was offered me in New York City by 
the Remington typewriter office, after taking 
their experienced stenographers' examination 
four years ago next summer. They offered me 
a position then at $4.00 a day. 

Very respectfully. 

This will give you an idea about the quarters. 
It is impossible for you to realize the difference 
it makes to have glass windows shutting out the 
air in this climate, even tho the windows be 
raised as far as they can be. Nights, when cool 
on the porch, it would be so stifling in the room 
that I could hardly get to sleep. The new houses 
are not fitted with glass windows and they have 
been removed from many of the old ones and 
from one room in this house. 

Mr. Tubby 's secretary went down to the of- 
fice of Labor and Quarters and requested them 
to allow me to have a wardrobe, but they said 
they were not allowed to provide any one but 
married people with wardrobes. It is right to 
encourage respectable married people to come 



126 Light on Dark Places 

here, but why it is not desirable or just to refuse 
single people ordinary comforts. A married man 
receives vastly more for the same work any way, 
for in addition to receiving the same salary, he 
has quarters provided for his family. 

The Superintendent of Labor and Quarters is 
a man who fled from South America, I think 
Peru, to escape being killed by the outraged in- 
habitants. He decamped in woman's attire and 
was secreted in a boiler and shipped as freight, 
and when the ship got to sea the cover was re- 
moved and the contents released. I am told that 
the motive of those who put him into the boiler 
was to prevent the dangerous precedent of allow- 
ing the natives to murder an American, not that 
they sympathized with him. He landed on the 
Isthmus, and having an influential backer, stays 
here in spite of continuous protest. To be Su- 
perintendent of Labor and Quarters on the 
Isthmus is all that one man could be expected to 
attend to properly, but this phenomenally ener- 
getic man is placed in control of all the govern- 
ment eating houses on the Isthmus. Further, 
the Panama Railroad Commissary was placed un- 
der the management of his close friend, Mr. 
Henry Burnett, who reports to him instead of to 
the General Manager of the Panama Railroad, as 
has formerly been the custom. Of course, this 
overworked man is entitled to great sympathy for 
being compelled (?) to stagger under three large 
burdens. Some time ago the Markel Brothers 
offered to take a contract to run all the govern- 
ment hotels on the Isthmus, take care of the 
quarters and supply sheets, pillow cases, towels, 



at Panama 127 

etc. For this they wished $34.00 a month per 
person. They agreed to feed them well and 
take the best care of the quarters. I have been 
told by those who know of the Markel Brothers 
that, had this contract been awarded to them, peo- 
ple would have been well fed and well taken care 
of, tho unquestionably the profits would have 
been large. It was also estimated, I have been 
told, by those who could have granted this con- 
tract, that the annual profits of the Markel 
Brothers would have been $3,000,000 a year. 
The canal employes are now charged 30 cents 
a meal, $27.00 a month, for table board and the 
food served is not fit to eat. Also they supply 
their own sheets, towels, etc. Yet Mr. Jackson 
Smith says that the government messes are run 
at a loss. Why this "glaring discrepancy ?" 
Why could not people be given excellent table 
board for $27.00 a month, particularly when no 
profit whatever is permissible ? The meat served 
is almost always beef, and such beef! It does 
not taste like anything. Tho the waters abound 
in fish, there is never any fish served. The word 
Panama means filled with fish. Even on Sunday 
there is never any chicken, but the same tasteless 
beef. The vegetables are all canned and very 
poor quality. The soup always tasteless as hot 
water. There is one exception; the Washington 
Hotel. The food there is fairly good and every 
evening myself and hundreds of others go there 
to dinner, a distance of about a mile, instead of 
dining at the Cristobal Hotel, a distance of a 
few yards. The quality of the food at the Wash- 
ington Hotel is a surprise to us all and many are 



128 Light on Dark Places 

the predictions that it will not last as it is now 
under the control of Jackson Smith. Those who 
have eaten at the hotels up the line tell me that 
they are worse thari^'the Cristobal Hotel. In 
every case I say, "That cannot be possible." 
They say, "It is." 

I have just heard that the manager of the 
Cristobal mess, being in a jocular mood, yester- 
day asked one of the unfortunates who eats there 
to say grace. He looked at the watery soup, the 
tasteless beef, etc., which formed the daily dole 
of food, and said, "My text is from Hebrews, 
13th chapter, 8th verse — 'J esus Christ, the same 
yesterday, and to-day, and forever/ " 

Labor and Quarters also informed the secre- 
tary that they did not know when the desired 
alterations could be made. One specially hot 
night, when it was impossible to sleep, owing to 
the heat, I got up and took my umbrella handle 
and smashed out four panes of glass, thereby 
slightly increasing the circulation of air. I made 
up my mind they could inflict any penalty they 
pleased. I received no answer whatever to my 
letter to Mr. Tubby except the secretary trying 
to have my quarters made more comfortable. So 
I went to Mr. Tubby one day after office hours 
and asked him if I might have the favor of a few 
minutes' conversation. He consented, and I 
asked him if he had received my request for a 
raise in salary. He looked at me with the ex- 
pression of an old cow that has made up its 
mind to hook you, and informed me that he could 
not raise my salary now, but said he might 
"Later, later." 



at Panama 129 

He then called my attention to the way the 
porch was being walled in to increase the size 
of the office and said that there were two women 
in Panama working for him at $75.00 per month. 
I said that they could not properly be compared 
with me, as both were beginners and one of 
them was not a stenographer. He then said, 
"Experienced stenographers used to come to my 
office offering to work for $35.00 a month." I 
answered, "Mr. Tubby, I have been in several 
cities of the United States and I never knew 
anywhere of experienced stenographers going 
around offering to work for $35.00 a month. 
What state are you from, Mr. Tubby?" He 
arose immediately and put on his hat and an- 
swered, "Saint Paul," and walked downstairs. I 
walked down, too, and said, "Is there anything 
the matter with my work?" He said, "I don't 
see how there could be. Perhaps I will put you 
up the line later in a position of more responsibil- 
ity," then called my attention to the way he had 
extended his front yard half way into the street. 
I retired. The idea of his telling me that I would 
have to be put in a position of more responsibil- 
ity to get more money, when people right in the 
main office doing ordinary clerical work, having 
no responsibility regarding other people's work, 
are getting $150.00 and some of them are notori- 
ous sots. If he thinks I am so lacking in self- 
respect that I will make another request for a 
raise, in salary to him, he is a poor judge of char- 
acter. One of the men who has asked him re- 
peatedly to raise his salary told me he always re- 



130 Light on Dark Places 

fuses, and the last time he showed him a post 
card photograph of a new clerk and said, "See 
what nice-looking clerks I am getting now." 

This Canadian evidently thinks it is a joke for 
citizens of the United States to come to "a coun- 
try lying within 9 degrees of the equator, where 
the temperature at sea level seldom falls below 78 
degrees at night; where in the sun, at noon, an 
ordinary thermometer will indicate 140 degrees 
or more; where it rains nearly every day for 8 
months in the year." I am English enough to be 
unable to see the joke, but I can see that he has 
spoiled the symmetry of the people's highway by 
stretching his front yard to nearly twice the size 
of everybody's else. 

You need not expect to see me in Buffalo this 
summer, or if you do, it will not be for more than 
five minutes. I am going to my native state and 
to my senator, to find out if it means anything 
to possess the experience of years, to have made 
every effort to comply with the advertised Civil 
Service requirements (barring the impossible 
one of changing your sex), to be a citizen of the 
United States, a native of the United States and 
a descendant of men who fought and women who 
suffered to make this country a nation. And if 
it means nothing, I am going to find it out, and 
not labor longer under delusions. As I listened 
to his facetious remarks and looked at his Knight 
Templar's badge I remembered what the English- 
man had said about putting me under the pro- 
tection of a Free Mason. 

When the chief clerk of the Division of 



at Panama 131 

Meteorology and River Hydraulics tried to have 
himself called "superintendent of office" and his 
adviser made chief clerk, he was only following 
the example of the Chief of the Division of Ma- 
terial and Supplies. When he assumed control 
of this division it was supplied with a chief clerk, 
but he brought a young friend of his and called 
him "superintendent of office." There was this 
difference, however, the Chief of Material and 
Supplies had the backing to carry out his bluffs. 
The former chief clerk was deprived of his au- 
thority, but not of his salary. Somebody re- 
ported the matter and the pleasing title of "super- 
intendent of office" was ordered into "inocuous 
desuetude" until the ineffective attempt to resur- 
rect it in the Division of Meteorology and River 
Hydraulics. 

I asked one of the men in Material and Sup- 
plies what the former chief clerk was doing now 
and he said, "He is holding the bag." 

Aside from other misfortunes I have broken a 
piece off of one of my front teeth and I am afraid 
it will begin to ache. 

Those of you who have met my cousin Alma 
will regret to hear of her death as well as sym- 
pathizing with me. You know I cared more for 
her than almost anybody else. She was one of 
the most unselfish people I have ever known. We 
have been friends since childhood. You remem- 
ber what I have told you before about her work 
among the Indians. They expressed their appre- 
ciation, did they not ? 

I send you her sister's letter : 



132 Light on Dark Places 

My dear Mary. 

I have to tell you the sad news that Alma died 
here on Saturday, June 9th, of her old trouble, 
peritonitis. 

We received a telegram at home on Saturday 
morning, saying that she was very low. I packed 
and started at once, reaching the school on Tues- 
day evening. I found on arriving that she had 
died on Saturday and the funeral had taken place 
on Sunday. 

She was taken very ill on Wednesday night 
with severe pain. On Thursday and Friday she 
grew rapidly worse and by Friday evening they 
had given up all hope of saving her. Everything 
possible was done, and her friends here were 
most faithful and kind. 

When the Indians heard that she could not live 
they collected money among themselves so that 
she might be taken home for burial ; $57.00 were 
collected. Alma, however, during some con- 
scious moments expressed a wish to lie here in 
the Indian country, so we expect to use the 
money toward a stone for her grave. 

The little cemetery where she lies is on the 
brow of a slight rise just in sight of the school, 
right out on the great open prairie. From it there 
is a beautiful outlook to the west over a woody 
ravine and on toward the buttes rising against 
the sky. She loved the spot and I am sure will 
wish to rest there among her chosen people. You 
know her life so well that I am sure you will 
feel as I do that she has won peace and rest. 
During her illness she prayed God to take her 
and He did. 



at Panama 133 

I found some papers belonging to you among 
hers, so will send them on with this letter. 
Most sincerely your cousin. 

Cristobal, C. Z., August 2, 1906. 
Dear Club: 

Circumstances have been such that I can take 
you on a trip to Mount Hope Storehouse, the 
largest on the line. Monday afternoon, June 
25th, the chief clerk came to our office with the 
Mount Hope storekeeper and said he must have 
one of the stenographers in our room to go to 
Mount Hope for two or three days — any one of 
the men. Every one hates to be detailed to 
Mount Hope. It is a mile from Cristobal ; there 
are no quarters there and it takes just so much 
time off one's noon hour to go back and forth, 
and unless you take the train that leaves at 6 :45 
in the morning, you have to walk. There is a lit- 
tle launch which the storekeeper tries to have to 
take the clerks up in the morning a little before 
8 o'clock, but sometimes this gets out of com- 
mission. For these and other reasons the men 
hate to be detailed to Mount Hope, and when 
the chief clerk made the above statement they 
looked very blue, but I thought, "Here is a 
chance for me to escape from an unpleasant dic- 
tator.'^ I also remembered Mr. Tubby's remark 
in my interview about putting me up the line and 
raising my salary and thought I would give him 
a chance, so I asked to be sent to Mount Hope 
and was told to be at the pier the next morning 
where the launch left. I was pleased with the 
idea of the ride on the launch, but dreaded the 



134 Light on Dark Places 

long muddy walk to it. This is the rainy season. 
The last man tnat dictated to me is some sort of 
a foreigner and insists on spelling canceled with 
two Is, etc. Do you know there is almost none 
of the ninnyism in the Spanish language that 
there is in ours in regard to silent letters ? There 
are almost no silent letters and words are spelled 
as they are pronounced. Think of all the time 
saved and misery avoided if teachers were not 
obliged to pound it into children's heads that sed 
must be spelled said; soder, solder; U, you, and 
all such nonsense. Why should the plural of 
copy be copies and poppy poppies? Men have 
arranged this spelling matter, I believe, yet some 
people insist that women are less sensible than 
men. I think George Eliot stated the case ex- 
actly when she said, "I am not denying women are 
foolish. God Almighty made them to match the 
men." There is not anywhere near enough time 
to learn useful things, and think of the hours 
and hours wasted on nonsense. 

In connection with the subject of folly, a 
ridiculous incident is recalled to my memory. A 
foolish woman in San Francisco was out walking 
in a pair of shoes with those idiotic French heels. 
She attempted to pass over a freshly laid tar 
walk and her heels sank in so far some men had 
to pull her out. I would have left her sticking 
there. 

One day my before-mentioned dictator dic- 
tated thus: "ioth, nth, 12th, 13th and 14th 
instant." When I wrote the letter I wrote : "ioth, 
nth, 12th, 13th and 14th instants." He insisted 
that the "s" be erased, making it instant. I 



at Panama [135 

brought the Standard Dictionary to him, which 
states : 

"instant" 

2. Now passing ; current ; present ; 

as, the 10th instant (that is, the 10th day of the 
month now passing)." 

If you can see anything in that definition 
which would make you willing to use the word 
instant as plural, please enlighten me. I seized 
the opportunity to escape from a dictator that 
insisted on it, tho one of the men assured me 
that after taking one trip to Mount Hope I would 
wish I had never been born. 

Almost all of the several typists in the Mount 
Hope office were negroes. They are so short of 
stenographers that they are forced to make the 
best shift they can with Jamaican negroes. The 
machine I had to use appeared to be very old, but 
had been in use less than a year. Typewriters 
that they are sending here now have a bronze 
finish as a protection against rust. Many of 
the operators of typewriters on the Isthmus do 
not take the trouble to cover them up at night. 
What do you think of a class of workers who do 
not take the pains to keep their own tools in 
order, especially anything as expensive as a type- 
writer ? 

During the morning an aged colored man 
came to the office with a note from the mechanical 
storekeeper at Cristobal. One of the stenograph- 
ers at Mount Hope left and they tried to get 
along with the services of this negro. It being 
rather impossible for a novice in typewriting to 
fill the place of an experienced stenographer, 



136 Light on Dark Places 

after securing my services, he was detailed to 
the mechanical storekeeper. The m. s. promptly 
ordered him back to Mount Hope with a note 
declining his services. After an earnest conver- 
sation over the 'phone he was again sent to the 
mechanical storekeeper, protesting, that, as he 
was not wanted, it was not wise for him to go. 
He 'returned in the afternoon with another mes- 
sage that he was not wanted. The storekeeper 
said to me, "I do not know what to do. I would 
like to keep you here, but there is an inventory 
that must be gotten out at the Mechanical Store- 
house and if you will go there for a few days 
until I can get some one else, I will be obliged." 
I was glad to go where I was needed most. The 
launch had been run into a drifting tree on the 
journey up that noon and could not be used again 
until repaired and you would have laughed to 
have seen me return to Cristobal that evening 
with the crowd on the labor train. The platform 
of the storehouse was level with the cars, but as 
there was a space of a yard or more between 
them, they spanned it with a little ladder for me 
to walk on. Most of the men jumped it. These 
cars have no steps on the sides. Leaving the 
train at Cristobal was more difficult. There is 
no platform there and I had to jump to the 
ground, a distance of about four feet. I hesi- 
tated, but the chief clerk beckoned me from be- 
fore and the storekeeper urged me from behind, 
so I took courage and jumped. The gymnastic 
feat was not nearly as hard for me as for a poor 
rheumatic old man on the same train. 

I started to find the Mechanical Storehouse 



at Panama 137 

next morning and got lost, but was discovered by 
a Jamaican clerk who was sent to show me the 
way. He led me up the railroad track, on both 
sides of which for a long way were negro labor- 
ers' quarters. These wretched little houses rest 
on stilts, and now during the rainy season the 
water is constantly on the level with the floors, 
or less than an inch below them. My guide told 
me that when it rains the water usually goes 
right into the houses. There was one long build- 
ing which I judge is bachelor quarters. There 
were what seemed to be iron frames three or 
four tiers high and I think three rows wide ; that 
is, there were three separate pieces of canvas on 
each tier. There were no pillows or bed clothes. 
Of course, at this hour, the laborers were gone, 
but a few of these narrow bits of canvas con- 
tained human beings who must have been sick 
to have been there at that time of the day. 

The mechanical storekeeper expressed himself 
glad that I was detailed to typewrite his inven- 
tory. 

When I left the office at 5 o'clock the negro 
laborers were returning to their quarters and 
were getting their suppers on little charcoal 
braziers outdoors. It was a sad sight to me as 
I slipped along in the deep, sticky mud, so deep 
in many places that I had to stop and look which 
way to jump and to turn. I passed the stable 
where the government mules are kept. They 
were hurrying toward it in numbers, eager for 
their suppers. 

I got lost again before I reached the commis- 
sary, where I was going to buy some provisions. 



138 Light on Dark Places 

The rain came pouring down in torrents and con- 
tinued to do so for nearly an hour. I got stuck 
in the mud, and stuck, and stuck again. By this 
you will realize what sort of a road it is. 

I thought of the numerous little fires I had 
seen the negro laborers trying to start to cook 
their suppers. How could they get any suppers 
with rain pouring in torrents for an hour ? They 
are not allowed to cook in their quarters for fear 
of fire and no covered place is provided for them 
in which to cook, so these poor men exist under 
difficulties. Consider the brilliant criticisms some 
of the authors of magazine articles make on 
"The lazy, worthless, Jamaican laborer." They 
sleep all night on a strip of canvas but little 
wider than their bodies, they must get up in the 
morning and cook their breakfasts out of doors 
in the tropical rain or shine, as it happens. They 
must be at work at 7 o'clock A. M., they get their 
noon meal under the same weather conditions as 
other meals. They receive the splendid wage of 
10 cents, U. S. currency, an hour. They are 
obliged to pay at the government commissary as 
high prices for food as are charged at the gro- 
cery stores in the City of New York, whose pro- 
prietors have high rents to pay and are doing 
business for profit. 

THE GRAFTER'S VERSION. 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of jobbery, 
Thou best of jokes! 
I love thy every cove, 
I love each verdant grove, 



at Panama •' 139 

But most of all I love 
Thy verdant folks ! 

— Washington Herald. 

Having finally reached the commissary I made 
my purchases — a difficult feat. The government 
commissary is supposedly run without profit, for 
the benefit of the employes. There is hardly a 
day after 5 o'clock when the grocery department 
is not packed solid, three rows deep, with per- 
spiring negro laborers impatiently waiting to 
buy food for their suppers and breakfasts. They 
have sometimes two clerks, sometimes three, to 
wait on this crowd, which crowd, individuals 
changing as some leave and others enter, never 
decreases between the hours of 5 and 7. Mar- 
ried women usually do their buying during work 
hours, but there were always some there at this 
time, and, of course, all the white people em- 
ployed in the offices who had purchases to make. 
Similar conditions prevail in the dry goods de- 
partment. Is it not strange that a store which 
is not run for profit, and which sells its groceries 
at the prices charged at stores that are run for 
profit, and many of them at higher prices, can- 
not afford to provide a proper number of clerks 
to wait on customers ? Naphtha soap is 6 cents 
a cake, I never paid but 5 anywhere before. 
Pears' soap is 13 cents a cake, I never paid but 
10 in New York or New Haven; scented, 17 
cents a cake. Cold storage eggs, 40 cents a 
dozen; something that is called butter, 40 cents 
a pound, but calling grease butter does not make 
it butter. I bought this stuff five times, tried to 



140 Light on Dark Places 

sat it and threw it away. The last time I car- 
ried it back and changed it for canned fruit. 
Sometimes the canned fruit is good, but the last 
three times I bought it it was so stale it had lost 
all flavor and was so soft I was afraid to eat it. 

I intended to dine at the Washington as usual, 
then take a Spanish lesson, but being soaking wet, 
returned to my room and changed my clothes. 
It being so late I went to the Cristobal Hotel to 
dine, but wished I had gone to the Washington in 
my wet clothes. It was the same old story — 
insipid soup, no fish; tough, tasteless beef, the 
only meat course, as always. The soups served 
at the Cristobal Hotel are the quintessence of 
nothingness. There is not enough stuff put into 
the water to give it any taste; it is just slightly 
colored — always the same. The canned beans 
and potatoes were fair. The coffee as bitter as 
gall. The dessert was two green gage plums, 
canned. The butter, strong enough to walk. 

Here is the copy of my reply to Miss Burton's 
letter : 

Cristobal, July 15, 1906. 
Dear Miss Burton: 

Your interesting letter received yesterday and 
I read with great interest your account of con- 
ditions in Japan. I am surprised that you are 
not more favorably impressed with it from the 
tourist's view. I have always supposed that the 
grand old temples, etc., were as interesting as 
European buildings, and to visit Japan has been 
one of the dreams of my life. I have read maga- 
zine articles and things of that sort. How dif- 



at Panama 141 

ferent it often is to see things for yourself or 
have information from a person telling the un- 
varnished truth. Your letter and my own travels 
of the past year and a half have disillusioned me. 
I agree with Professor Van Dyke that "There 
are no islands over the sea." 

I like the idea of meeting you in South Africa, 
and unless I drop into something too good to 
leave, think seriously of joining you. I applied 
to Cecil Rhodes for a position years ago — he died 
almost immediately upon receipt of my applica- 
tion — and if he was the woman hater I heard 
he was, I hope it gave him a fit. His secretary 
replied, saying they had nothing to offer. I 
used to know a girl that went there as a teacher 
in some school. She was engaged to a divinity 
student and was to marry him when he gradu- 
ated and go to South Africa and convert the 
heathen. Her heart and head were full of him 
and his future work, but he jilted her. She 
wanted to die, but couldn't, and went to the dark 
continent alone. I tried to advise her as to luring 
him back, but she only sighed and said she had 
tried everything. 

Now for the Isthmian facts for which you ask. 
At this time, the rainy season, the hospitals are 
full to overflowing. Some weeks ago the num- 
ber of patients at Colon Hospital increased from 
J 50 to 350. The prevailing illness is pernicious 
malaria. Most of the m?.ny deaths here are the 
result of malaria and the accompanying fever. 
A great many cases develop into pneumonia. Fu- 
neral trains go to the cemetery daily bearing 
from one to nine corpses. Since Colonel Gorgas' 



142 Light on Dark Places 

masterly handling of the unsanitary conditions 
on the Isthmus disease and death are less than 
they have been. During the rainy season people 
used to have double mosquito bars, then the mos- 
quitos got thru. Since Colonel G. had the 
swamps rilled in a single bar keeps out the greatly 
lessened army of bill punchers. 

The food here is execrable mostly. You can 
buy some good stuff at the government commis- 
sary, but must pay exorbitantly for it, and folks 
fortunate enough to belong to private messes and 
married folks keeping house can have eatable 
food. Many of them send to the States for their 
groceries because of the over-charging at the 
commissary. But, alas, for the unfortunates 
obliged to eat at the government messes. The 
Cristobal Hotel, located a few steps from my 
door, is where I should eat, but I and others 
gave it up in despair. We could not digest the 
wretched stuff, so we cook in our sleeping rooms 
what we can and walk a mile in the dirt and mud 
to the Washington Hotel at Colon for dinner. 
In the dirt, the driving rain and the muddy, mud- 
dy, much muddy mud. You can imagine what 
the food is that drives us to this expedient. Then 
we only get something we would hardly cross the 
street for in civilized places, but infinitely better 
than the Cristobal mess. We pay 30 cents a 
meal — $27.00 a month and more for this food. 
They say quarters are free, but you see they ex- 
act so much for food that you pay as much as 
you would in ordinary places for both and the 
food is such that no one would dare to serve, 
even if they were base enough, in civilized board- 



at Panama 143 

ing houses. They facetiously call these wretched 
eating houses "hotels." This is on the order of 
Marie Antoinette's remark, "Why don't they eat 
cake?" when told the poor people of Paris had 
no bread. 

All that keeps the majority here for any length 
of time is the six weeks' vacation to which you 
are entitled if you stay a year. Many give up in 
despair, but others hold on grimly and hope to 
live to get it. 

The tropical short hours which we are sup- 
posed to receive are a supposition ONLY. Of- 
fice hours are as long as they are anywhere and 
folks work nights frequently, Sundays sometimes 
—NO EXTRA PAY— Saturday afternoon holi- 
days are unknown. We did not have Decoration 
Day for a holiday as Governor Magoon forgot 
to announce it for Cristobal and along the line. 
It was observed in Panama. You know how we 
plan to do all sorts of things holidays and can 
imagine our disappointment. 

If you are granted a day off to go to Panama 
for some necessary errand — shopping and so 
forth, it is deducted from your vacation or the 
day's pay cut off. This is to make employes con- 
tented and to provide suitable recreation for 
them. 

Washing is very expensive, not only in the 
price, but in the destruction of your clothes, be- 
cause washwomen have not civilized conveni- 
ences. 

There are no electric cars or any street cars. 
Your cab fare, when you can get a cab, and the 



144 Light on Dark Places 

chances are even that you will not, is 10 cents 
U. S. currency. 

Should you come to the Isthmus go to Panama, 
not to Cristobal. There are rooms to rent in 
Panama and it is a much better and more inter- 
esting place than Cristobal. My room is about 
the width of a horse stall and I have only a 
single bed or I would take you in. 

I will be delighted to see you if you come 
when I am here. I am trying to get into some 
business house in the tropics to get the tropical 
salary which I ought to receive. If I do so per- 
haps I could also find something you would like. 

Should you come to Panama I do not want you 
to be disappointed as I was, therefore remember 
the following, and as a man once told me who 
was describing insect life in New Jersey, "I am 
not exaggerating none ; I don't need to." 

Clear your mind entirely of the idea that the 
majority of men in high positions here are people 
to respect and to admire — such are the exception, 
not the rule. 

Do not feel proud because you are a citizen of 
and a daughter of the United States. These 
facts do not command respect here. 

Do not expect to find that the best workers, the 
most conscientious and the most experienced are 
valued accordingly. Look for the reverse. If 
you were selecting chief clerks to be placed in 
charge of large clerical forces would you ap- 
point men that were only old enough to hold 
down subordinate positions with credit? This 
custom by no means applies only to chief clerk- 
ships. 



at Panama 145 

Again thanking you for your interesting letter 
and hoping we may meet somewhere, either in 
the Occident or the Orient, I am, 

Sincerely yours. 

June 30, 1906. 
The postmaster at Cristobal has resigned in 
disgust. He asked for sufficient help and did not 
receive it. The postoffice clerks at Cristobal are 
martyrs. They not only work all day, every day, 
but nearly every night until 11 and 12 o'clock, 
also Sundays and holidays — the same force — 
month in and month out. The registry clerk is a 
lady, and in life's hard struggle here she is one 
of the faithful and the brave. She is a native of 
New Orleans, but lived for years in Caracas with 
her husband and their children. The depression 
of business in Venezuela on account of the as- 
phalt trouble caused them to go to the Isthmus, 
where her husband immediately succumbed to the 
climate and died. This left her with four chil- 
dren, whose education is not completed, and a 
greatly decreased income. She also works nights, 
days, Sundays and holidays and tho registry 
clerk receives but $100 a month because she was 
appointed on the Isthmus, and besides her cleri- 
cal service is often called upon to act as an in- 
terpreter because she speaks Spanish fluently. 
Sometimes she gets discouraged, but usually is 
so busy sympathizing with others she half for- 
gets about herself. She told me it was not half as 
bad for her, because separated from her children, 
she could not be happy any way, but she was so 
sorry for the other clerks because they never had 



146 Light on Dark Places 

any time for recreation and cannot go anywhere. 
Strange to say, she is about the only employe in 
the Cristobal postoffice who has not spent some 
time in the hospital. She advises me to take my 
meals at the Astor House, as she does, for the 
board is $30 a month; as a matter of health it is 
worth it, for the food is fresh, good and nicely 
cooked. Excellent soup and fresh fish every 
night, good meat and fresh vegetables. This, if 
nothing else, proves there is no need whatever of 
such poor stuff being served in the government 
hotels. I am thinking of it, but it would cost 
me a dollar gold a day, even tho I only took two 
meals — it would be the same for three. My first 
meal consists of a cup of tea, an egg and two 
oranges, and I find it more convenient to get it 
myself than to go any distance for it. Of course, 
if I could get good board anywhere near I would 
prefer to do so than to be mussing around in my 
one room. My den is a curiosity shop and I am 
going to have a picture of it taken and send it 
to you. The overworking in the Cristobal post- 
office is the regular order of things, no exception, 
and, of course, means a good deal of sick time 
in the hospital. 

There was a little hunched-back man quartered 
in the house next to where I am. The climate 
and his health proved too much for him and 
some days ago he went out of his mind. Com- 
ing to his quarters, instead of going up the 
steps, he leaped over the piazza rail and threw 
his umbrella and book at the men sitting on the 
porch, all the while shrieking horribly. His tar- 
gets were frightened and ran as hard a& they 



at Panama 147 

could. He was captured and taken to Mira 
Flo res (Many Flowers), where lunatics and 
lepers are confined. Before the United States 
took possession here they roamed the Isthmus 
without restraint. 

On June 29th I heard something which pleased 
me greatly for I had decided the men down here 
were craven slaves. They had been making em- 
phatic complaints of the wretched food served at 
the Cristobal Hotel for weeks. Yesterday they 
circulated a petition at lunch time to be sent to 
the chief engineer requesting proper food. In a 
few minutes three hundred men had signed it. 
Twelve of the leaders came to breakfast this 
morning and by Lieutenant Wood's orders were 
told to get their breakfast elsewhere. He is the 
head of the office of Labor, Quarters and Sub- 
sistence in Cristobal. Another man went to 
breakfast at 6:40 this morning and did not re- 
ceive it until 7:30. Demanding the reason for 
the delay, the waiter informed him that he had 
to wait on Lieutenant Wood and could not leave 
him for any one else. I heard this news this 
evening at the commissary while waiting my turn 
in the dense crowd at the counter. Lieutenant 
Wood takes the stand that they should make no 
comments, but meekly accept any rubbish set be- 
fore them in way of food; get sick and go to the 
hospital, die or get well— as it happens. Possibly 
you have heard reports of the graciousness of the 
authorities providing "Wholesome and nourish- 
ing meals for the laborers at the cost of 10 cents 
each," and that "It is a deplorable fact and diffi- 
cult to account for from the American point of 



148 Light on Dark Places 

view that these laborers do not avail themselves 
of this privilege except in small numbers." Is 
the American point of view so densely idiotic as 
to believe laborers would refuse a good meal for 
10 cents ? I am told that they consist of the leav- 
ings from the hotels. The leavings from the 
hotels are not fit to eat before they are leavings. 

I stayed at the Mechanical Storehouse until the 
inventory was completed. It was a long walk 
and I had great times getting there thru the 
violent tropical showers. After the inventory 
was finished I retiKned to Mr. Benham's office. 

The Panamanian presidential election occurred 
July 1st. There were two United States battle- 
ships at anchor for some time before for fear 
there might be a revolution, one off Panama and 
one off Cristobal. 

A gentleman told me at dinner the other night 
that, "Out of the thousands of corpses to whom 

Dr. gave post-mortem examinations, he 

only found one with a healthy liver." "What," 
I gasped, "of the thousands of corpses!" How 
does that strike you? This climate is hard on 
liver. 

I had an unexpected caller the other night. I 
was busy thinking about my vacation when I 
heard a funny little thud on my pillow and there 
was a pink lizard with brown eyes staring at 
me. He looked as scared as I felt. I am not 
expert at killing things, but I thought I couldn't 
have that horrible little creature running over 
my face at night, so I started for him with the 
hammer, but he was quicker than I was and 



at Panama 149 

vanished behind the bed. I think he fell off my 
electric light wire on to the pillow. It reminded 
me of the time I met a deer in the forest in 
Minnesota. We were both motionless with ter- 
ror for a moment. It seemed to me my heart 
stopped beating. Then he suddenly turned and 
fled, and after trembling awhile I followed his 
example (not him). 

There are hundreds of people sick here and 
have been for months. There is not enough room 
in the hospitals for them and as soon as a man 
gets up another is waiting to take the bed he gets 
out of. There are over 400 patients in Colon 
Hospital all the time ; then there is a big hospital 
at Ancon and smaller ones all along the line. 

July 24, 1906 
Another one of the big engines of the Panama 
Railroad jumped the track to-day killing two men 
and wounding nine; it turned over and landed 
upside down. The corpse of the engineer was 
fastened beneath the 90 tons of iron and steel. 
There seems to be an average of a wreck every 
other day. I think it is because the roadbed is 
not good, as the soil is so muddy and the en- 
gines jump the track easily. The lack of firm- 
ness in this muddy soil causes the tracks to sink, 
especially if any speed is attempted, and off goes 
the engine. The heavy engines which the Ameri- 
cans have brought here are not as suitable for 
this road as the engines used by the French, 
which are not so heavy and better adapted for 
work on this insecure ground. When I was 



150 Light on Dark Places 

working at the mechanical storehouse I walked 
up the track on the ties because of the dense 
mud. Occasionally I was obliged to step off and 
give the right of way to a train and always no- 
ticed the tracks rising up and down and work- 
ing against the heads of the spikes. 

There is much talk about the anticipated visit 
of the president. All agree that if he wants to 
find out how things are he will have to come in 
disguise. 

When returning from dinner last night all the 
electric lights in Cristobal went out. We first 
attributed the greater darkness to heavier clouds, 
as the rain began to pour with increased violence 
at the same time, but finally saw that there was 
not an electric light in Cristobal. 

I went to the Cristobal Dispensary this morn- 
ing to get some tonic. It was a pitiful sight to 
see the sick colored laborers. Many of them 
were so weak they could not sit up while their 
medicine was being prepared, but lay on the 
benches and the floor. The director of hospitals 
was there himself. He was very courteous. 
What a pleasure it is to meet a gentleman or a 
lady, if only for a few minutes. 

One of the bachelors quartered in the house 
where I am has a long tale of woe like many 
other folks. He said he and his room mate have 
been here five months and they promised them 
quarters in the Cristobal Hotel just as soon as it 
was finished, but they put people in there who 
came down on the last boat in preference. He 
said he asked the steward at the Cristobal Hotel 



at Panama 5*5 r 

why tie did not do at least as well as they did at 
the Washington Hotel and that the steward 
frankly informed him that they were in it for 
money, not for glory. They have changed his 
room five times, he says. I consoled him by tell- 
ing him that they would soon change it again, I 
thought, for the married couple who occupied 
that room before were expected back the first 
of August. 

Mr. Maltby's stenographer has had malaria for 
three days. She just crawled out this noon, a 
most changed person from when I saw her about 
a week ago, when she looked so well and happy. 
She gained ten pounds since coming; that is be- 
fore she got this drawback. She eats at the 
Maltby's mess as do several of his employes. 

These are the days when the corpses go to 
the cemetery at Monkey Hill, which the Ameri- 
cans have rechristened Mount Hope. Those 
whose friends and relatives do not have their 
bodies sent back to the States are buried at this 
cemetery, that is, those who die at this end of 
the line. Many of the people who die here have 
been living under assumed names and no one 
knows who they belong to. 

I expect to sail for New York on the 9th of 
August. In looking thru my trunks, preparatory 
to packing, I have found many things covered 
with mold and rust. Send me a gold button hook 
the next time you write and any other luxurious 
necessaries you can spare in that non-rusting 
metal. 

I enclose the program of the 



152 Light on Dark Places 

FOURTH OF JULY 

CELEBRATION AT CRISTOBAL. 

ALL AMERICANS INVITED. 

PROGRAM. 

10:30 A.M. — Address from west verandah of 

Building No. 1, Cristobal. 
1 1 :oo A. M. — Athletic program begins, to be 
continued until completed. 

100- Yard dash, free-for-all. First 
prize, $25; second, $10. 

1 00- Yard dash, for men weighing 
200 pounds and over. First 
prize, $20 ; second, $8. 

75-Yard dash, free-for-all. First 
prize, $20; second, $10. 

120- Yard hurdle race, with ten 
hurdles, 3^ feet high. First 
prize, $25 ; second, $10. 

50- Yard three-legged race, free- 
for-all. Prize, $25. 

50- Yard sack race, free-for-alL 
First prize, $15 ; second, $5. 

Obstacle race, about 200 yards, 
free-for-all. First prize, $20; 
second, $8. 

40- Yard backward race, free-for- 
all. First prize, $10 ; second, $4. 

Running broad jump, free-for-all. 
First prize, $10; second, $4. 

Running high jump, free-for-all. 
First prize, $10; second, $4. 

Running hop, step and jump, free- 
for-all. First prize, $10; sec- 
ond, $4. 



at Panama 153 

Pole vaulting, free-for-all. First 
prize, $15; second, $6. 

Putting 16-pound shot, free-for- 
all. First prize, $20 ; second, $7. 

.Tug of war, one team from each 
department. Prize, $100. 

Boat racing by crew of U. S. S. 
. "Columbia." First prize, $50; 
second, $50 (cups). 

400- Yard race for horses, 15 
hands and under. First prize, 
$50; second, $20. 

400- Yard race for horses, 15 
hands and over. First prize, 
$50; second, $20. 

400- Yard race for mules, free-for- 
all. Prize, $25. 

400- Yard hurdle race, three 
hurdles, free - for - all. First 
prize, $50; second, $20. 

Native horse race, under 14 hands. 
First prize, $30; second, $10. 

A calk walk and prize waltz will 
be had in the dancing pavilion. 

NOTE — Above program subject 
to change. All prizes are in 
United States currency. 
12:00 M. to 2:00 P. M. — Luncheon served at 

Pier 11. 
2:00 P. M. to 5:00 P. M. — Dancing at Pier 11. 
5 :oo P. M. to 7 :oo P. M. — Dinner served at 

Pier 11. 
7 :oo P. M. — Fireworks from barges near Cris- 
tobal Point. 



154 Light on Dark Places 

8:00 P. M. — Reception at Pier 11. 
8:30 P.M.— Ball at Pier 11. 



MUSIC. 

The Division of Building Construction Band 
will play during the morning. 

The I. C. C. Band will play during the after- 
noon. 

The Band from the U. S. S. "Columbia" will 
play for the dancing in the evening. 



SPECIAL NOTICES. 

The tug for the U. S. S. "Columbia" will leave 
Pier 11 every hour, the weather permitting, from 
10 :oo A. M. to 5 :oo P. M. 

A station for first aid to the sick and injured 
will be established near Pier 11. 

A ladies' dressing-room will be found in 
Building No. 2. 



TRAINS. 

From La Boca, 7 130 A. M., arrive at Cristobal 
10:30 A. M. 

From Camache, 8:00 A. M,. arrive at Cristo- 
bal 10:05. 

From Cristobal, 8:30 P M., July 4, and 12:30 
A. M., July 5. 



If weather prevents exercises being held out- 
doors they will be continued in large Freight 
Shed on Pier 11. 

I cut the American eagle from the cover of 
the July "Strand" and mounted it on a piece of 



at Panama 155 

light blue pasteboard, slanted a flag across it and 
tacked them beside my door and added the finish- 
ing touch of a bunch of real nutmegs. This was 
Connecticut represented in one corner of Cristo- 
bal. The pier was tastefully decorated with 
banners, Japanese lanterns and palm branches 
and the waterscape appeared in its usual beauty. 
There was a bad wreck on the road which de- 
layed the train bringing the celebrities from Pan- 
ama and along the line, so everything was a little 
later than scheduled. No one was killed, but 
some were hurt. 

The Cristobal postoflice clerks worked about 
all day as usual on holidays. 

I did not go down to the Washington to dine 
as the celebrities were to be entertained at the 
Cristobal Hotel and I thought that we would be 
sure to have something eatable. To the fury of 
everybody dinner was worse than usual, which 
was only just possible. The ladies and the men 
who dine in the small dining room were turned 
out, altho there was plenty of room and no need 
of it, and the whole room reserved for the celeb- 
rities, who were served with a nice dinner. I left 
mine uneaten and went up to the pier, hoping to 
get a bite of something decent there, but tho I 
arrived before 7 o'clock there was not a crumb 
left. I went again to see the fireworks later with 
some other folks. A few colored people tried to 
watch the games at Cristobal and were chased 
off by mounted policemen. A very unpleasant 
sight. 

We had a smallpox scare in the early part of 
July. The patients were taken to the quarantine 



156 Light on Dark Places 

hospital. I heard that some of them escaped and 
were running loose. I also heard that we would 
be quarantined six days at New York on account 
of the smallpox here. 

A bright man asked me this question to-day 
and I will pass it on to you, "Do you know what 
nothing from nothing leaves ?" 

July 19, 1906. 

There is a young Panamanian working in the 
office that I am. He told me they kept him type- 
writing until 11:30 night before last and last 
night he was awakened at 3 o'clock in the morn- 
ing by his drunken room mates asking him to 
drink and he is going to murder them if they do 
it again. Then he groaned about the heat. I 
asked him why he did not wear elbow sleeves. 
He said he was ashamed of his hairy arms, that 
he looked too much like a monkey. "A monkey," 
he says, "will drink like a man and chew tobacco 
like a man. A man is all the same as a monkey." 
Just then we came to a palm tree with a sign 
nailed upon it which stated that the government 
would soon open a bakery in connection with the 
commissary and sell bread at 5 cents a loaf. I 
read it aloud and he said : "Five cents a loaf is 
not cheap. We sell bread at 5 cents a loaf and 
make a good profit." His father is the proprie- 
tor of a bakery in Panama. 

I have had to stop my Spanish lessons again 
because my teacher is sick with fever. I have 
been very well considering the sick time here, 
but I was invited out to dinner two weeks ago 
Sunday and was caught in a hard rain and have 



at Panama 157 

had a cold ever since. I took ten grains of 
quinine and next day I was deathly sick, but went 
to the office in the morning, but had to leave be- 
fore lunch and was in bed two days. I heard one 
ot the married ladies upstairs on the front porch 
and crawled out and asked her if she would tele- 
phone to the head nurse and inquire if I might 
go to the hospital for a day or so. She said she 
was not going out and told me I ought to go 
home that this was not a good place to be sick in. 
1 told her that would be a good idea if one had 
a home, but as I had not I did not see how I 
could very well. She said, "I have, and a father 
and a mother, a brother and five sisters, and 
when I get tired of it here I go home. I cannot 
do anything for anybody that is sick. I got 
tired waiting on a sick woman last year. They 
would not take you at the hospital anyway, you 
are not sick enough." Then she vanished. Is 
that not about as much sense as some people 
have? She is one of the brides who left their 
homes to come here and get married. 

t ^ J u ty 2 9> !9o6. 

I went over to Coolie Town, which is a section 
01 Colon to-day to see if my washerwoman could 
not possibly get my clothes dry before I left on 
my vacation. Laundresses have a hard time dry- 
ing clothes here during the wet season. Their 
houses are so small they cannot dry them in- 
doors. Coolie Town must have been originally 
inhabited by Chinese, but now there seems to be 
nothing but negroes living there. As I passed 
one of the miserable hovels I stopped, astonished 



158 Light on Dark Places 

and stared, for leaning against one of the houses 
was a little girl so beautiful I immediately 
thought of the pictures of angels on Easter cards. 
She was apparently a quadroon. I have read of 
beautiful quadroons, but never saw one before — 
that is, a beautiful one. I wished I could take 
her away with me and put her in a more suitable 
atmosphere, but what could I do? So I walked 
on. 

I woke up desperately hungry last night at 
12 :3c Why, I am sure I do not know. I got 
up and made three slices of toast on my oil stove, 
then ate two bananas and went back to bed. As 

1 dropped off to sleep I wondered what would be 
the effect of those bananas. They are, or are 
supposed to be, very bad food after 2 P. M. in 
this climate. The only other time in my life I 
ever performed a similar feat was when I was 
staying at one of my uncles. My cousin Grace 
and I slept together and we both woke up about 

2 A. M. and decided we were perishing with 
hunger, so we stole downstairs and feasted on 
custard pie. Her mother makes elegant custard 
pie. 

They have just raised the price of ice 140 per 
cent. I have been paying 5 cents a day for 5 or 
6 pounds of ice, miscalled 10 pounds. Now they 
say they will deliver actual weight and I must 
pay 12 cents a day for 10 pounds of ice. They 
will not sell me less than 10 pounds, tho they de- 
liver ice to four other parties at this house. I 
pay my janitor 25 cents gold a week to put it in 
the ice box for me, because I am at the office 
when it comes. 



at Panama 259 

The ice wagon got stuck in a deep mud hole 
this morning near the house as I was starting to 
the office. The driver lashed the mules, who tried 
their best to get it out, but could not. One of 
the ladies was watching from her balcony and 
she ordered them to stop lashing the mules for 
their own stupidity in driving into the hole Al- 
most any day, any time of the day, you may hear 
and see her going to the rescue of some abused 
horse or mule and, if she cannot stop it herself 
chasing around in the tropical sun to find a police- 
man I carried on the good work by persuad- 
ing the Zone policeman, who was watching some 
men cut down cocoanuts, to go and stop their 
lashing the mules. He declined at first, saying 
that it was no use, they did not know any better 
than to drive right into a mud hole, he could not 
do anything. I said, "You are just the person 
that can do something." He told me at noon 
that they had to take some of the ice out before 
they could start the wagon and that he warned 
them that if they drove into that mud hole a^ain 
he would arrest them. It was awful for the 
mules, but the roads are so full of deep mud holes 
that it must be hard for the drivers. // any of 
you ever see a chance to start the Humane So- 
ciety down this way, do not fail to do so We 
are so sorry for the cab horses, they are worked 
so hard and the drivers are always whipping 
them along when they are going as fast as they 
can. I have asked drivers why they whip the 
horses so and they said they have got to make 
them go as fast as they can to get more fares 
that they have to pay $5 gold a day to the man 



160 Light on Dark Places 

that owns the cabs before they can clear a cent 
for themselves. I wish the government would 
build a street-car line here for the convenience of 
the people. It is providing landaus drawn by- 
spans of horses for the pleasure riding of sev- 
eral of the officials' families, each at a monthly- 
cost of $50 gold or more, and these imposing 
metropolitan equipages look absurd on the nar- 
row streets of Panama and Colon. When I was 
in Panama I racked my brain to think of what I 
could do to help the poor horses and finally wrote 
to Ella Wheeler Wilcox and laid the burden on 
her shoulders. She responded warmly and said 
she would immediately write a piece and have it 
published in some newspaper calling attention to 
the cruelty to animals in the tropics, and that she 
would always be ready at any time to do any- 
thing she could. 

You will be interested to hear about the gath- 
ering of cocoanuts. They grow in clusters in the 
tops of the cocoanut palm trees and vary in size 
from a child's head to that of a man's — I judge 
by looking at them. I have never measured any 
of them. When they fall from their height they 
come down hard and I do not dare walk under 
the cocoanut palms for fear my head will be 
telescoped. There was a circus parade here the 
other day and the elephant picked up a cocoanut 
and carried it with him in his trunk. I counted 
fifteen big ones in one cluster yesterday as they 
lay on the ground. There must be hundreds and 
hundreds of them on these few trees at Cristobal, 
but I had no idea there were so many until they 
began to gather them and carry them away in 



at Panama n6r 

wagon loads. One man climbs the tree to cut 
off the clusters and another always stands down 
on the ground, holding a rope, one end of which 
is tied to the cluster being cut by the man in the 
tree, the rope passing over a branch of the tree. 
When the cluster is cut loose it swings by the 
rope and is lowered slowly in order to prevent the 
bursting of the nuts, which is almost always the 
result when they fall from the tree. I presume 
that you girls, heretofore lacking the knowledge 
of the matter which I have just given you, have 
been misled by the pictures on the tin cocoanut 
boxes and thought monkeys picked the cocoanuts. 
The palm branches are always at the top of the 
tree. They are very appropriately called plumes, 
and when a dying plume falls you hear a swish 
and a swirl that sounds like a liquid rustle. 

When I first came to live on this palm-lined 
street I always thought it was raining when the 
wind blew through the palm branches. 

The natives take the fiber which is found on 
the inside of the shell and make queer little 
Brownie caps. These are pointed like dunce caps 
and are large enough for a person to wear. I 
mail you one and whomever it fits best may keep 

Last week while I was at lunch at the Cristobal 
Hotel one of these poor miserable little horses 
with a wagon full of cocoanuts got stuck in a 
big mud hole, from which he could not possibly 
pull the wagon. The driver lashed it, and lashed 
it, and lashed it, to the distress of most of the 
people at lunch, but none of the men got up to do 
anything. The sister of the director of posts was 



i62 > Light on Dark Places 

as much worried over it as I was and, tho seated 
at quite a distance from each other, our endur- 
ance of this distressing scene reached its limit at 
the same instant and we arose simultaneously, I 
starting to her to ask her to try and get her 
husband to do something and she for a police 
officer in the other room. The policeman went 
out and ordered the load lightened until the horse 
was able to draw it out. 

These things are constantly occurring. A 
short time ago I was walking down Front Street 
on my way to dinner and there was another poor 
miserable horse struggling under the lash to draw 
an unusually heavy wagon containing a rilled 
cask. To increase the difficulty there was a 
young man standing in the wagon. The road was 
very muddy and I inferred that he did not want 
to soil his white shoes. The colored driver had 
gotten out and was lashing the horse and a large 
crowd was watching the performance. I looked 
around for some U. S. man to send to the rescue, 
but not one was in sight, they were all natives. 
So finally I got up courage enough myself and 
walked into the native police station and got a 
native policeman sent out to stop the perfor- 
mance. The young man with the white shoes 
got out of the wagon. I did not know but that 
he would come over and tell me to mind my busi- 
ness, but I was bound to see the thing thru, tho 
I felt weak in the knees, and stood there until 
a wagon drawn by a big white mule was brought 
and the cask transferred. I think if an American 
had come along just then I would have been so 
relieved that I would have dissolved in tears. I 



at Panama 163 

never saw such a little horse harnessed to a work 
wagon and every time they lashed it it shuddered 
and quivered from the tips of its ears to the tip 
of its tail. Finally it just dropped its head be- 
tween its forelegs and I rushed into the police 
station. 

August 13, 1906. 
Dear Club: 

I sailed August 10th for New York. There 
are not many passengers. The ladies are the wife 
of one of the division engineers, her mother and 
myself (we three sit in a row at the captain's 
table), a nurse from Ancon Hospital, who has 
malaria very badly, and two married ladies with 
their husbands. There is also the proprietoress 
of the most "high-toned" of the low houses at 
Panama. She was not seated at the table with 
any other women. I presume this is the same 
woman who came down about three months ago 
with five of her followers on the ship one of the 
nurses did, for she answers to her description. 
I am informed that she travels up often for re- 
cruits. 

To-day at 9:30 we reached Fortune Island. 
This was the destination of about a half dozen 
negro laborers returning from Colon. The ship 
anchored and a boat came out to take them and 
their luggage ashore. Some had their posses- 
sions in dilapidated-looking trunks, some in 
chests and some in tin tubs and pails. The ocean 
around the ship was a dark sapphire blue, along 
the shore of some parts of the island a brilliant 
turquoise and elsewhere an equally brilliant em- 



1 64 Light on Dark Places 

erald green. The negro who commanded the 
boat that came for the laborers was an ideal 
African king. Black as a black cat with a superb 
and powerful figure. I wish I could have gotten 
pictures of this scene for you and for myself — 
the water colored like beautiful gems, the green 
island, the striking figure of the great negro and 
a small boat with white sails set, flying an Ameri- 
can flag which shimmered and floated in the 
wind, harmonizing splendidly with the other daz- 
zling colors. It would have made a magnificent 
oil painting. One of the passengers is a survivor 
of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. An- 
other is the owner of a marmoset which he is 
taking to his children. This is the smallest kind 
of a monkey and considered by a good many the 
prettiest monkey. It has a bushy tail, something 
on the order of a squirrel's. I do not think it 
compares with the white- faced monkeys, who 
are larger than the marmosets and have not the 
fluffy hair. The white- faced monkeys are intelli- 
gent, but so mischievous they are perfect nui- 
sances. The one at the hospital was playing 
tricks all the time. After we lengthened his 
chain he did not rest until he opened the screen 
door to my room. I often found him trying to, 
but did not think he would succeed, but one day 
I came back from the office and found he had 
gone in and thrown the ink bottle on the floor and 
my bottle of photograph paste out on the porch. 
He had soaped his paws with the paste and 
washed them in the ink and then made prints of 
them all over my books and papers. He climbed 
to the upper porch one day and tore one of the 



at Panama 165 

nurse's skirts all to pieces. We used to keep 
goodies in the ice box on the back porch, which 
he soon discovered. Whenever we opened the 
ice box he rushed to it, fastened his eyes on the 
dainties, crossed his arms over his chest, then 
looked at us in the most appealing manner. Of 
course, he always got some. Monkeys go to bed 
at sunset and it makes them very cross to be dis- 
turbed. Before Jack Sprat knew me very well 
if I patted him on the head as I passed his box 
after bed time he would bite me instantly. After 
he got to know me when I patted him on the head 
he would give me a friendly nibble, but he al- 
ways bit me if I tried to take him up after bed 
time. I held my hand glass before him one day 
and he made desperate efforts to grab the other 
monkey. I amused myself laughing at him and 
the exasperated little beast suddenly made a spring 
and grabbed the glass and only an equally rapid 
grab on my part saved this treasured article from 
being thrown violently to the floor. 

We had great discussions on the boat about 
Isthmian and other matters. I asked the captain 
one day if what I had heard was true that the 
majority of women in Costa Rica are beautiful. 
He said he did not know as he had never been 
there and referred me to a gentleman who had 
been. He answered with brutal frankness, say- 
ing "No, the majority of women anywhere are 
not beautiful." I did not think to say so, but we 
know the majority of women look like their 
fathers. 

I heard on the Isthmus that the service on this 
line was getting worse and worse, but I was not 



i66 Light on Dark Places 

annoyed until to-day. The tea served is poor 
and I wanted to have some of my own made for 
myself and the lady who sits beside me. The 
steward refused to allow us to have a teapot to 
have it made in. The captain was not at the table, 
so I went over and asked the purser, who was 
obliged to leave his dinner and go upstairs and 
get an order from the captain before the steward 
would send in the teapot. 

I have paid my fare twice. The next day after 
I landed in Panama, as I had secured a position, 
I went to the office of the Pacific Mail S. S. Com- 
pany and requested the refund of the unused 
portion of my ticket and amount I paid for ex- 
cess baggage. The clerk smilingly informed me 
I would have to wait until he wrote to San Fran- 
cisco about it and it would probably be years be- 
fore I got it. Like other insolent people in au- 
thority here, he seemed to think the depriving of 
poor people of their rights an excellent joke. I 
left my address and requested him to write me as 
soon as he heard from San Francisco. I waited 
until long past time that I should have been noti- 
fied, then went to Panama and found that they 
had heard but had not notified me. The Pacific 
Mail wrote as follows : 

"Under terms of a contract between this com- 
pany and the Panama Railroad Company we have 
to pay the P. R. R. their proportion of the 
amounts collected whether passengers go beyond 
Panama or not, therefore we are unable to make 
any refund to the lady. Would suggest, how- 
ever, that as no service was performed by the 
P. R. R. Company, she be referred to that com- 



at Panama 167 

pany for any refund which she thinks is due 
her." 

I immediately wrote to the P. R. R. Company, 
but tho I have their written acknowledgment that 
they have received $46 from the Pacific Mail for 
my passage, besides the amount for excess bag- 
gage, they have refused to refund it. I wrote a 
lawyer in the States about it and he replied that 
there was no question about it ; they were obliged 
to extend the time on the ticket or return the 
money they received for it. They wrote me that 
I had consented to the time limit printed on the 
ticket. I immediately replied that I had not con- 
sented any more than any one ever consented to 
any form of highway robbery. I would have had 
the lawyer collect it months ago, but believe that 
had I done so they would have had me dis- 
charged. This statement may seem beyond prob- 
ability to you, but it would not if you had been 
on the Isthmus. I had a personal interview with 
the general manager about it and he and his chief 
clerk, especially the chief clerk, seemed to think 
the matter quite a joke. I presented the ticket 
the day I sailed, but it was refused. I was also 
obliged to pay excess baggage again. I shall, of 
course, after I resign, put the matter in a lawyer's 
hands, but it is so hard, and takes so much 
strength one needs for the day's work to fight 
brazen, organized robbery! I could have sold 
the ticket to a man going to New York on the 
next steamer that left after I arrived in Panama, 
but they would not allow the transfer. 

This rule regarding stop-overs on the Isthmus 
is, that if the connecting steamer is there you 



168 Light on Dark Places 

must leave at once; if it is not there you must 
stay ashore at your own expense. 

They say that the Isthmian Canal Commission 
is going to raise the employes' fare from $20 to 
$45 between Colon and New York. As $46 is 
the amount received for a regular passenger on a 
thru ticket from 'Frisco, they are planning to 
make a profit for carrying employes. 

The price of kerosene was raised from 11 cents 
per gallon to 23 cents per gallon at the commis- 
sary and I told you about the raise in the price 
of ice. You see these extortions are constantly 
occurring. \ 

For a change I will tell you one of the funniest 
things that ever happened. As I stepped out of 
my room one morning I banged the screen door, 
then remembering I had forgotten my knife, I 
turned back to get it, but could not open the door. 
I shook it repeatedly, but to no purpose. There 
is an ordinary iron hook and catch on the inside 
and the hook had fallen down and fastened itself 
(unless it was spirits), shutting me out of my 
own room. I called for the janitor to climb into 
the window, but he was nowhere within hearing 
and a gentleman who roomed in the next house 
came to the rescue. I have been in and out of 
this door hundreds of times, banging it or not, 
as it happened, and that hook never acted mis- 
chievously before. 

On my way to dinner the Sunday before I left 
I met a cab drawn by a poor old horse which 
ought to have been at rest. Both of his sides 
showed several whip marks where he had been 



at Panama 169 

whipped until he was literally raw, the hair and 
skin were all off. 

We are now very near New York and I am 
getting quite excited at the prospect of seeing so 
many of my relatives and friends. 

New Haven, September 1, 1906. 

I have met a gentleman in New Haven who 
has been in Panama. He was quartered at Coro- 
zal and said he could not eat the food served at 
the government mess and he and others used to 
cook for themselves. He left Panama because 
he could not get quarters for his family. 

I must tell you the closing incident of the voy- 
age. The much-discussed subject of feeing ser- 
vants is one that I do not consider as I have next 
to nothing to fee them with beyond an occasional 
quarter and on Christmas a half dollar. I know 
lots of girls who thru fear fee servants when 
they owe big bills to their dressmakers, dentists, 
etc. I pay my bills and that is about all I can do. 
When I came up on the boat it was my intention 
to give my waiter 50 cents, but during the week 
I gave him a quarter and when ready to leave I 
found that unless I broke a $5 bill it would take 
all my change if I gave him any more. I would 
not have cared so much about this, but we landed 
at New York late at night and I wanted to have 
nickels handy for car fare. I was worried at 
having to land so late. It was about 9:30. The 
other three ladies who were traveling alone went 
to one of the most expensive hotels in New York, 
so I could not afford to go with them. I also 
reflected that I had paid $1.00 for a rickety old 



i^o Light on Dark Places 

steamer chair, which dollar went to the employes 
and 40 cents for lemonade during the trip, which, 
I suppose, went to the waiter; this, with the 
quarter, I thought was enough for me to bother 
over. When we landed at the pier we were not 
allowed to leave for about an hour, until some 
one came to inspect our hand bags. The boat 
had not been expected to land until the following 
morning; hence no inspectors to receive us. We 
were forbidden to take our trunks from the dock 
before next day, which compelled passengers 
who had been planning to go right on to stay 
over night in New York. I do not know what 
kind of lights they use on this dock, but they cast 
the most disfiguring reflections imaginable. Our 
faces look green and yellow, and you would have 
thought we were afflicted with some awful dis- 
ease. As we sat there, sleepy and impatient, wait- 
ing for the custom house officer, the waiter that 
waited on me appeared and said, "Aren't you go- 
ing to pay me for waiting on you?" I was so 
surprised I answered him and said, "Are you 
expecting me to pay your salary?" He said, 
"How do you expect me to live on my salary? 
Aren't you going to give me any more than 25 
cents?" I said, "No." He said, "I hope you 
will live to starve to death." Then he went off. 
Presently he returned and said, "Here, take your 
25 cents back." I walked away. I wished after- 
ward that I had taken it. I told one of the other 
ladies about it and she said, "You ought to have 
given him a dollar, some people give them five." 
I said, "I did not and I am not going to either." 
I was so angry that I intended to report him, but 



at Panama 171 

next day I thought likely the miserable creature 
does get a very poor salary and, tho that is not 
my fault, I never want to make a poor person any 
trouble. As our handbags were inspected we 
bade one another good bye and I started to find 
a cab to take me to the Christian Association, for, 
tho I felt sure they would be too full to accom- 
modate me, knew they could tell me what hotel 
to go to. I did not want to receive the rebuff 
which I understand so many ladies traveling 
alone in New York receive when going to a 
hotel, viz., that they are full. The driver of the 
nearest cab asked me $2.00. I knew that was an 
outrageous fare and decided to take a car. As 
I left the cab one of the passengers came to me 
and said, "Let me put you on a car," which he 
did, going way out of his way to do so. The 
next morning I found the legal rate of fare from 
the pier to the Christian Association in the Trav- 
elers' Guide to be 50 cents, possibly 75 cents. I 
had no special desire to return to that pier after 
the previous night's unpleasant experiences, but 
had to have my trunks inspected. The people I 
found were as different as day and night. As 
soon as I reached the pier a man came forward 
and asked if he could do anything for me and 
showed me where to find my trunks. I showed 
the inspector my old thru ticket from San Fran- 
cisco, also my baggage receipts and asked him 
if, seeing these, he could not believe that I had 
no dutiable goods in the big trunk which I had 
had roped with much difficulty, but that I had 
brought my things from San Francisco. He was 
very courteous, but said he could not let my trunk 



172 Light on Dark Places 

pass without opening it, because if he did he 
would be fined a month's salary. So he looked 
thru them all and pronounced them all right. I 
paid the baggage man 25 cents to put the rope 
back on my trunk, for which he gave me many 
thanks. I did not know but he would return it. 
During the inspection the officer and I had some 
conversation about Panama and he advised me 
not to go so far from home and told me what 
a hard time he had had when a young man when 
he first went away from home. When I bade 
him good bye he said, "Good luck to you, my 
child," and I left marveling at the difference in 
the same place at different times. 

Sometimes it is well people cannot read one 
another's thoughts, is it not? The wife and 
mother-in-law of one of Jackson Smith's pro- 
teges came to New York on the same boat I did 
and I enjoyed their society. Awhile ago I met 
a member of the family of the man whom this 
protege unjustly supplanted. The man who was 
ousted was a graduate of Columbia University 
School of Engineering and an experienced engi- 
neer. He had been appointed to the position of 
superintendent of mines on the Isthmus and re- 
duced expenses in connection with his work one- 
half, and at the same time increased the output 
100 per cent. He often worked from 5 o'clock 
in the morning until 10 at night. In fact, he had 
so overworked that, in connection with the try- 
ing climate, his weight fell from 185 to 145 
pounds. He had requested married quarters, 
which were granted to him, and had sent for 
his wife to join him. This at considerable ex- 



at Panama 173 

pense, as she was in Mexico with her parents. 
On the same ship which brought her came the 
friend of Jackson Smith and the superintendent 
of mines was discharged and the friend given his 
position. Not the slightest intimation had been 
given him of such a proceeding, his work had 
been commended and married quarters granted. 
He states also that all the superintendents who 
had worked with him were discharged and re- 
placed by friends of Jackson Smith, with but 
one exception; and this man was transferred 
from trucks to dumps, which is a very inferior 
position. Also that his successor had never pre- 
viously held any better position than that of track 
man. I think this means a man who attends to 
the laying of tracks, and he was rapidly advanced 
to the position of division engineer. The dis- 
charged engineer did everything in his power to 
have an investigation made, but one never was 
made, even tho Chief Engineer Stevens prom- 
ised him that there should be. 

Cristobal, March 15, 1906. 
Dear Club : 

I am back at Cristobal and express the sincer- 
est regret that I did not have time to go to Buf- 
falo, at least I thought I could not. I notified the 
proper people in Washington nearly a week be- 
fore I intended to sail to provide me with trans- 
portation at the I. C. C. rate and they replied 
that I would have to wait until the next ship, 
owing to insufficient accommodation. I was then 
in Philadelphia and had to pay my board while 



174 Light on Dark Places 

waiting. Had I known this in time I would have 
gone to Buffalo. 

I did not see the senator, but the congressman 
of my district. The congressman of one's dis- 
trict is a proper person to apply to, therefore as 
he was so much nearer than a senator I went to 
him. This gentleman has been congressman for 
more years than I remember and many people 
thought he would not be a candidate for re-elec- 
tion, tho popular, on account of his extreme age 
and resulting infirmities. Others assured me that 
while he lived no other man would be congress- 
man of that district. I finally decided to ask for 
an interview with him. I carried a letter from 
one relative and he had received a telephone mes- 
sage from another. He told me to tell him all I 
wished to and his wife graciously placed a chair 
beside him for me and said I must talk loud be- 
cause he was quite deaf, and to ask her to help. 
Imagine me, then, sitting beside this deaf old 
gentleman, yelling at the top of my voice, trying 
to tell him all my woes of the past year. If you 
have ever tried to talk to a very deaf person you 
will realize why I concluded that if I had not 
earned all I asked before that I was working 
hard for it then, and decided as others have done 
regarding Isthmian positions that you have to 
work so hard to get what you are entitled to 
without these superlative exertions that it is 
not worth the trouble. My instructions at the 
close of the interview were to send him a writ- 
ten request the next day, stating just what I 
wanted. I had already brought him one, but he 



at Panama 175 

told me I must omit the following paragraph as 
it was "not politic" : 

"Every one who has worked on the Isthmus 
knows that, as a rule, it is useless to expect fair 
treatment unless some influential person interests 
himself in the matter — so many of the heads of 
departments being only interested that they and 
their friends get rich out of it." 

I cut that out and next day mailed him the 
following : 

New Haven, Connecticut, 

September 19, 1906. 
Hon. N. D. Sperry, 

Congressman, State of Connecticut, 
New Haven, Connecticut. 
Sir: 

I have been a stenographer in the government 
service in the Canal Zone since December 1, 1905. 
I took the Civil Service examination last Oc- 
tober in San Francisco because I happened to 
have been visiting and working there for six 
months previous to the examination. I am a 
native of the State of Connecticut and a member 
of a family which has been resident in Connecti- 
cut for 267 years. 

• After taking my examination, without waiting 
for my rating, I sailed for Panama, arriving No- 
vember 30th, and was appointed stenographer to 
the Division Engineer, Division of Meteorology 
and River Hydraulics. As I had not then heard 
from the Civil Service Commission regarding the 
examination, I agreed to commence at a salary 
of $100, with the promise of a prompt advance, 



176 Light on Dark Places 

being informed this was the rule for persons who 
had not been sent down by the Civil Service Com- 
mission. In two months all the office force, with 
the exception of the chief clerk and office boy 
in this division was transferred. I am now at 
Cristobal. 

I have passed the Civil Service examination for 
a stenographer and typewriter required by our 
government. I am a stenographer of fourteen 
years' experience. Before going to California I 
worked for the engineers in Columbia University 
for about two and a half years at a salary of 
$18 a week. I substituted in New York City six 
months at salaries of $3 and $4 a day. I ob- 
tained my positions through typewriter agencies 
after passing their examinations for experienced 
stenographers, not with the aid of friends. But 
tho an advance in salary has been promised I 
have never received it and am paid less than 
numbers of employes on the Isthmus who have 
never passed a Civil Service examination, who 
have had comparatively little experience, many 
of whom are doing ordinary clerical work (not 
stenographers) and some who are not even 
American citizens. 

Also, being "appointed on the Isthmus," I am 
allowed but two weeks' sick leave, when if my 
appointment were confirmed by the Civil Service 
Commission I would be allowed one month. 

My relatives and friends have advised me to 
bring this matter to your kind attention, and I 
respectfully request : 

I. That my appointment, dating from Decern- 



at Panama 177 



ber 1, 1905, be confirmed by the Civil Service 
Commission at Washington. 

2. That I be allowed one month's sick leave. 

3. That such sum as the government pays for 
the transportation of stenographers from San 
Francisco to Panama be returned to me. 

4. That my salary be raised to the amount to 
which a stenographer is justly entitled who has 
passed a regular Civil Service examination held 
in a state of the United States (not on the Isth- 
mus) who has worked on the Isthmus the length 
of time that I have done. 

5. That all the rights to which an American 
who has passed the Civil Service examination 
required by the government of the United States 
is entitled be granted to me. I am, 

Very respectfully, 

Mary A. Chatfield, 
Stenographer, Division Materials and Supplies, 

Canal Zone. 

I then went to Philadelphia, confident the 
Canal Commission would be glad to grant me 
my rights, being assured of their validity by a 
congressman. Indeed, until now I would not 
have believed that any official of any government 
in the universe, even the meanest in existence, 
would have made an official statement that a citi- 
zen of his country was the same as "people from 
all parts of the globe." The Scandinavian Consul 
in San Francisco during the investigation of 
naturalization papers tried to help Scandinavian 
sailors who had foresworn their allegiance to 
Sweden and Norway. 



178 Light on Dark Places 

The Canal Commission promptly granted the 
following unreasonable request: A very elderly 
gentleman from one of the Southern -States was 
appointed at a salary of $3,000. When he ar- 
rived at the Isthmus the chief of the division to 
which he was assigned saw that he was unable 
to fill a position commanding that salary and 
placed him where his work consisted of tying up 
bundles, told him he was not worth $3,000 and 
that he would pay him $1,200. His friends ad- 
vised him to ask for leave without pay and go 
up and tell his representative about it, which he 
did, and his representative wrote the Isthmian 
Canal Commission as follows: 

"If the Isthmus is not big enough for Tobey 
and Cotter, you had better discharge Tobey," etc. 

The complainant was immediately returned to 
the Isthmus and his chief instructed to retain him 
at a salary of $3,000 a year. This in face of the 
fact that every one who has mentioned this in- 
stance, even the man's friends, state that $100 a 
month was a large salary for a person of his abil- 
ity. The commission also sent the representa- 
tive's letter to the chief and it was seen and read 
bv many people after being placed in the office 
file. 

Following is the commission's reply to my con- 
gressman's letter. He remailed it to me, saying 
he was ready to act on any suggestion I or my 
relatives thought proper, but I did not write him 
again as I was informed his health was too poor 
for him to attend to any business whatever. 



xt Panama^ Hjq 

COPY. 

ISTHMIAN CANAL AFFAIRS, 
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION, 

PANAMA CANAL BUILDING. 
Washington, D. C, September 26, 1906. 
Sir : 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of your communication under date of the 21st in- 
stant, inclosing a statement from Miss Mary 
A. Chatfield, employed as stenographer in the 
Isthmian service, urging certain changes in her 
status, her requests being summarized by her as 
follows : 

"I. That my appointment, dating from De- 
cember 1, 1905, be confirmed by the Civil Service 
Commission at Washington. 

"2. That I be allowed one month's sick leave. 

"3. That such sum as the government pays 
for the transportation of stenographers from San 
Francisco to Panama be returned to me. 

"4. That my salary be raised to the amount 
to which a stenographer is justly entitled who 
has a regular Civil Service examination, held in 
a state of the United States (not on the Isthmus) 
who has worked on the Isthmus the length of 
time that I have. 

"5. That all the rights to which an American 
who has passed the Civil Service examination re- 
quired by the government of the United States is 
entitled, be granted to me." 

Replying to paragraphs 1, 2 and 5, I have the 
honor to make the following statements : It is 
not necessary to have Miss Chatfield's appoint- 



180 Light on Dark Places 

ment specially confirmed by the Civil Service 
Commission, as this would be of no advantage to 
her or the commission. Her appointment has 
been regularly reported to the Civil Service Com- 
mission as is done in all similar cases. I might 
state, however, that she has been received and is 
retained in the Isthmian service thro the special 
favor of the authorities on the Isthmus, for the 
reason that she could not have received such ap- 
pointment thru Civil Service channels, as 
women are not admitted to stenographic exam- 
inations for the Panama service. The Civil 
Service examination which she claims to have 
passed must have been for the Federal service 
for duty in the departments in the United States. 
At the time she received her appointment direct 
from the authorities on the Isthmus the Presi- 
dent's order of January 12, 1906, placing all 
clerical positions in the Isthmian service strictly 
subject to Civil Service regulations had not been 
issued, and for this reason such appointment, now 
irregular, was permitted, and similar appoint- 
ments were made in other emergency cases. 
Furthermore, the Civil Service regulations do 
not attempt to and cannot govern the conditions 
of employment. The conditions of employment 
have been regulated at the sessions of the Isth- 
mian Canal Commission, and one of the condi- 
tions is that persons employed directly on the 
Isthmus shall receive fifteen days' sick leave. 
Miss Chatfield's status is exactly the same as 
that of all other persons who have received ap- 
pointments while resident on the Isthmus, the 



at Panama i8i 

manner of selection, whether thru Civil Service 
examinations held on the Isthmus or without 
such examinations, having no bearing on the 
question whatever. 

Replying to paragraph No. 3, there is no au- 
thority for the payment to her of the cost of gov- 
ernment transportation from San Francisco to 
Panama and therefore the same cannot be al- 
lowed. Persons appointed while in the United 
States and instructed by this office to proceed to 
the Isthmus receive free transportation from the 
port of embarkation to the Isthmus ; but those 
persons who arrive on the Isthmus independently 
and thereafter arrange for and secure employ- 
ment, cannot expect reimbursement of their trav- 
eling expenses as such expenses were incurred 
upon their own volition. A large number of this 
class of persons have been employed directly on 
the Isthmus, having arrived there from all parts 
of the globe, and they have no right to make an 
appointment, received after arrival, the means of 
securing a refund of traveling expenses incurred 
at their own pleasure. 

Replying to paragraph No. 4, you are informed 
that changes in pay status come directly under 
the jurisdiction of the heads of the department 
on the Isthmus, in Miss Chatfield's case the Chief 
of the Division of Material and Supplies. This 
office exercises no control in such matters as it is 
not in a position to observe and know the value, 
quality, quantity and faithfulness of the services 
performed by the employes on the Isthmus in 
subordinate capacities, nor their adaptability to 



1 82 Light on Dark Places 

the work of the department in which employed. 
The Isthmian Canal Commission. 
Very respectfully, 

W. Leon Pepperman, 

Chief of Office. 

After awhile I sent the reply of the commission 
to a friend who had asked me to do so and ex- 
plained the absurdity of it as follows: 

1. When a citizen's appointment is received 
from the Civil Service Commission they cannot 
be dismissed without a trial and charges against 
them must be proved. Is not this an advantage? 
As it now stands, I could be discharged at any 
time for absolutely nothing. 

2. "She has been received and is retained in 
the Isthmian service thru the special favor of the 
authorities on the Isthmus." 

This statement is more than ridiculous; it is 
insulting. They are unable to get or to keep 
enough employes to do the work here, even tho 
they hire citizens of other countries — in numer- 
ous instances, Jamaican and other negroes as 
typewriters, clerks, telegraph operators^ and 
stenographers. The services of inexperienced 
married women, who came here only to be with 
their husbands, are gladly accepted; so inade- 
quate is the clerical force on the Isthmus. It is 
no favor to any citizen of the United States to 
hire such citizen to do work that the United 
States is paying millions of dollars for, but it is 
a favor to subjects of other countries to hire 
them when they hold positions citizens of the 
United States would like. 



at Panama 183 

It is an uncalled-for insult to speak of a citizen 
of the United States in this connection: 

"A large number of this class of persons have 
been employed directly on the Isthmus, having 
arrived there from all parts of the globe." 
t The United States is paying for this canal, not 
"all parts of the globe," and there is no proper 
comparison between the citizens of the United 
States and those of "all parts of the globe." 

That women are debarred from taking the ex- 
aminations for the positions in offices on the 
Isthmus is most unjust and senseless. The 
Isthmian Canal Commission sends plenty of 
trained nurses here, whose chief duty is to take 
care of colored men when they are sick — inas- 
much as the majority of patients are colored 
laborers — and they send school teachers, but the 
many applications from American women, ex- 
perienced in office work, are refused and the po- 
sitions which they seek given to citizens of for- 
eign countries. If competent business women 
who had passed the United States Civil Service 
examinations were permitted to fill positions in 
theoffices on the Isthmus it would make the great 
majority of government employes here, instead 
of the minority, respectable, intelligent, patriotic 
and honorable citizens of the United States, in- 
terested in seeing and knowing that this work is 
done honestly and skilfully, and eliminate the 
necessity of filling these positions with persons 

who have had no experience in office work 

grafters, sots, criminals, wanted by the police, and 
people from "all parts of the globe." What is 



1 84 Light on Dark Places 

the logical conclusion that the latter should be 
preferred to the former? 

3. "The Civil Service examination which she 
claims to have passed must have been for the 
Federal service for duty in the United States." 

When this examination which I claim to have 
passed and did pass was held, the official giving 
it requested the male stenographers to write on 
their papers that they would be willing to go to 
the Isthmus. I told him I wished to go and he 
said to write on my examination paper that I 
would be willing to, tho he did not think they 
would send me. People who have recently come 
from California and other Western States tell 
me that in all the postoffices there are notices re- 
questing men to take the examinations for the 
Isthmian service and stating that the entrance 
salary for stenographers is $125 a month. The 
writer of the letter to the congressman must 
know all these facts perfectly, yet he assumes 
that the examination was for a different purpose. 

Just before my appointment last December 
they had sent to Washington for a stenographer 
of "wide experience" to fill the self -same posi- 
tion. Therefore it is only right that my fare to 
the Isthmus should be refunded, as the request 
for that experienced stenographer was canceled. 

4. "Traveling expenses incurred at their own 
pleasure." 

No one that I know came to the Isthmus for 
pleasure. I most certainly did not. The power- 
ful incentive of extreme poverty brought me and 
others here because we believed we would re- 



at Panama , 185 

ceive the larger salaries, which are our just due, 
than those paid in more desirable places. 

When I arrived on the Isthmus I possessed 
nothing but my ticket to New York, my ward- 
robe and about $35. Living is so expensive 
everywhere it is impossible for homeless women 
to save much even tho they receive fair salaries 
and it is so inconvenient to be so poor I thought 
I would risk all the horrors of the Isthmus to 
get the extra money I ought to have received by 
so doing, and which I never for an instant 
doubted I would receive. My financial condition 
is affluence in comparison with many. Some peo- 
ple have not decent clothes and are heavily in 
debt. The conditions in the City of Panama 
were the following: 

Lodging accommodations to an American were 
most uncomfortable, the food poor, the streets 
narrow, DIRTY and perfumed at frequent in- 
tervals with the odors of foul-smelling sewers 
(excuse truthful language, but I want you to 
realize the senseless insult given when it is 
stated a person comes to the Isthmus for pleas- 
ure), the heat intense. A very short time be- 
fore my arrival yellow fever had been so preva- 
lent that there were not enough ships to carry 
the panic-stricken people away that tried to go. 
Do you think that people come to the Isthmus 
for pleasure? 

I said to myself, "I am perfectly well, I never 
take contagious diseases, there is more work 
here than people can do, I shall receive $125 a 
month; if I return to the States at this time of 
the year (December 1st) I may not get a posi- 



186 Light on Dark Places 

tion until summer, so I will stay," which I did, 
never for an instant imagining the injustice 
which people are apt to have to endure who have 
not friends to see that they are not imposed upon. 
My experience is a very common one, the heads 
of departments being so anxious to overpay their 
personal friends that they cut every one else 
all they possibly can to balance things up, and 
the Civil Service rules are nothing but a farce. 
It is the commonest kind of an occurrence to 
hear of some furious American leaving for home 
because they cannot get what they ought to 
have. 

When I returned this fall I found, when put- 
ting in my application for quarters, that the title 
stenographer has been abolished and every one 
is called a clerk. "A new ruling." I am rated 
as a 2d-grade clerk. This, doubtless, is done to 
make it appear less unjust and unbusinesslike to 
pay ordinary clerks who have never spent the 
money or the time to pay for or to learn a spe- 
cial accomplishment, or who do not possess the 
ability to learn one, better salaries than those 
who have. 

In regard to the 30 days' sick leave, the time- 
keeper himself told me when he said he would 
be obliged to allow me but 15 days, as I was 
appointed on the Isthmus, that a nurse, Miss 
Ruth Pentland, who was appointed on the 
Isthmus had been granted the 30 days' sick leave 
by the Isthmian Canal Commission. So it is 
nothing unprecedented, but if it were should be 
granted to a citizen of the United States. 

I enclose a copy of a letter I sent to the chief 



at Panama 187 

of this division regarding the enforced delay in 
returning after my vacation, which explains itself. 
Do you think that is a decent way to treat any 
one? 

COPY 

Cristobal, November 7, 1906. 
Mr. W. G. Tubby, 

Chief, Division Material and Supplies. 
Sir: 

It was my intention to sail from New York to 
Colon on September 26, 1906. To secure pas- 
sage on the steamer sailing on that date I wrote 
to the official at Washington, to whom I was in- 
structed to apply in your letter, six days before 
I expected to sail, requesting transportation. 
Having never been instructed, nor ever having 
received any intimation to the contrary, I be- 
lieved I was allowing ample time. I received an 
immediate answer stating that, owing to lack of 
accommodation, I must wait until the next steam- 
er sailed. 

In confirmation of this I refer you to Mr. W. 
A. Benham, to whom I was then directly ac- 
countable, and to whom I immediately wrote 
informing him of my enforced and unexpected 
delay. 

My salary for the time so lost has been de- 
ducted from my October pay check. I request 
that it be refunded as I am entirely blameless 
for my delayed return. 

Very respectfully, 

Mary A. Chatfield. 
Stenographer, 



1 88 Light on Dark Places 

The refunding of this money was refused. 

I shall have been here a year on the 1st of 
December, 1906, and I ought to receive $150 a 
month from that date. 

I do not know the reason the Isthmian Canal 
Commission rules that people appointed on the 
Isthmus shall begin on smaller salaries for doing 
the same work and have half the sick leave, un- 
less it considers they should be punished because 
the government did not pay their fares here. 

Many others were surprised, as I was by be- 
ing informed that they must wait until the next 
steamer sailed. I was told on the boat that it 
was the usual thing to be overcrowded. I have 
not observed any consideration of this fact when 
the all important heads of departments on the 
Isthmus choose to make vacancies in the working 
force by forbidding men whom they have dis- 
charged to be hired by any one else on the 
Isthmus, nor does it hinder them from treating 
people so unjustly they drive them to resigning. 
The "Advance" was crammed, every berth en- 
gaged, and one man slept on the cushions in the 
social hall. Three passengers were obliged to 
the preceding trip. There were two sittings 
at meals and the dining room was filled at each 
sitting. It must have been hard for the em- 
ployes and it was most uncomfortable for the 
passengers. The sea was very rough and almost 
every soul on the boat except myself was sea- 
sick for nearly three days, and some longer. I 
had a very pleasant room mate, but our stateroom 
was so small we were very uncomfortable. The 
lower berth was so low my steamer trunk would 



at Panama 189 

not slip under it, so we had to stumble over it. 
Fortunately she had only a suit case. The en- 
gine broke down Sunday afternoon and delayed 
our arrival at Colon for a day. 

There was a very mixed crowd on the boat, 
only fourteen of whom were women. Two 
nurses, the sister of one of the clerks here, who 
is hoping to get a position, and myself were the 
only single women. The rest were going to join 
their husbands. All seemed nice women but one 
and she conducted herself very differently than 
a married woman should. 

I heard a comical story on the boat. A cer- 
tain lady residing on the Isthmus possesses a 
husband holding an exceptionally good position, 
having numbers of men working under him. 
This lady is one to whom nature has been very 
unkind, being so extremely stout that you would 
turn and stare at her. Several other women who 
traveled down on the same boat with her treated 
her with open scorn. The ostracized one was not 
crushed, but carried herself with disdain and 
continued to breakfast in the dining room in 
sloppy wrappers. When the others arrived on 
the Isthmus they all found that their husbands 
were working under the husband of the scorned. 
Such is life on the Canal Zone. 

As to Poultney Bigelow's articles, I have heard 
all those things and many more since I have 
been on the Isthmus, they are all chestnuts here. 
As one of the passengers said, "He could not 
find out much. People were afraid to tell him." 
I heard so many things on the voyage I cannot 
begin to remember them. Negro laborers are 



190 Light on Dark Places 

brought to Fortune Island from other islands and 
taken off by passing steamers as the government 
wants them. A policeman told us that on one 
trip the captain brought the man who has charge 
of them $2,500 to be expended for food for the 
laborers. Upon receiving it he said, "$500 for 
the negroes and $2,000 for me." This was not a 
joke. The appearance of the unfed laborers con- 
firmed the statement. He said one of the ne- 
groes told him he had had nothing to eat since 
Monday and it was then Friday, and this man's 
condition and appearance and those of other 
laborers proved the truth of his statement. I 
have heard many pitiful stories about the hunger 
suffered by the negroes. 

You remember my writing you how negro 
laborers are hounded if they try to work for one 
department when they are wanted in another. 
White men are hounded the same way by the 
heads of some departments. Three white stow- 
aways were found on an outgoing ship at one 
time. The captain put back and returned them 
to the Isthmus. They had been discharged, I 
think in every case, for getting drunk. They all 
tried to get work in other departments, but the 
head of the one from which they had been dis- 
charged immediately wrote to the head of every 
department where they applied that he objected 
to their being hired. This, of course, seems 
strange to you, but it is an every-day occurrence 
down here. None of these men had anywhere 
near money enough to carry him off the Isthmus, 
so after being hounded from every place where 



at Panama 191 

they tried to get work they stowed away and the 
banner of the free floats over the Canal Zone! 

Another man was dismissed for drunkenness 
and, not having a cent, and knowing his fate if 
he tried to get another position on the Isthmus, 
went out and tried to drown himself, but was 
rescued. Then they hired him again and I be- 
lieve he is still with us. They say he drinks so 
much that he is not of much account. 

I will write you about the president's visit next 
time. 

Cristobal, December 2, 1906. 
Dear Club: 

I not in your last letter just received your de- 
sire to publish my letters. I will think about this 
before I give you an answer, and if I decide to 
let you I want to read them all over. Some 
things I have written you about some people 
should not be published and everybody should be 
given a fictitious name, except those so well 
known by the general public that a fictitious 
name would be no disguise. 

If I do think I will dedicate the collection to 
President Roosevelt. An Englishman wrote him 
about the robbery in the commissary and directed 
the letter to Washington, from whence it was 
sent to Chief Engineer John F. Stevens, who 
gave it to Jackson Smith, who discharged the 
man. I will discharge myself first and save Jack- 
son Smith the trouble. 

I wrote him once when he was Governor of 
New York State. Whether he received the let- 
ter I do not know, but he answered it exactly as 



192 Light on Dark Places 

I desired. Do you remember that Mrs. Place in 
Brooklyn who murdered her stepdaughter when 
she was asleep by pouring some dreadful acid in 
her eyes? If it had not killed her she would have 
been blind all her life. Because this vicious devil 
happened to be a woman a lot of people peti- 
tioned Mr. Roosevelt to refuse to allow her to 
be electrocuted. How any one with any regard 
for mercy and justice can desire favor shown a 
woman who abuses children I cannot understand ; 
in my opinion they are even worse than men who 
abuse women. After having an investigation 
which assured him Mrs. Place was sane he re- 
fused to interfere with the sentence and replied 
to this effect : 

"My sympathies are' with the wronged, not 
with those who do the wrong. When a woman is 
just as bad as a man I would punish her just 
as much as a man. I do not believe in mawkish 
sentiment." 

If a woman is as devilish as a man why 
shouldn't she be punished just as much as a man? 
I think they seldom are, but some of them are. 
The longer I live the more I respect and sympa- 
thize with women, and I think generally they are 
better than men. One of our prominent maga- 
zines once published a piece which discussed this 
subject and affirmed that women were not bet- 
ter than men, for, it argued, if they were men 
would have to come up to their standard. This is 
not so, because men have arranged the affairs 
of the world in a way to give them such an advan- 
tage that women cannot compel them to come up 
to their standard. It seems to me that the most 



at Panama 193 

foolish thing women do, so senseless I cannot 
understand why the practice is so universal, is 
to treat their domestic help as tho they were 
such inferior beings, thereby driving the better 
class of working women out of the home and 
forcing themselves to choose their helpers from 
the most ignorant and inefficient women in the 
world. One of the most ridiculous features of 
this fact is that housekeepers are so conscious of 
it. You cannot see a woman who keeps servants 
but almost invariably you receive a recital of her 
troubles in this line. I seldom say anything, but 
my mental comments are, "Serves you right for 
your stupidity and your unchristian meanness. 
If you were a maid would you want to wear a 
handkerchief on your head? Would you want to 
be forbidden to take a bath? Would you want 
it to be considered a crime if your company rang 
the front door bell ?'' 

I became very discouraged once when in San 
Francisco because I did not succeed at first in 
finding a position at $75 a month and thought 
that rather than realize less than a house servant 
I would try being one for a time and applied at 
an agency. The manager eyed me disapprov- 
ingly and said, "Are you accustomed to being a 
servant?" I replied that I was not, only as a 
stenographer is a servant. She immediately re- 
fused to do anything for me, and I could not in- 
duce her to even send me to the country, nor 
would she give her reason. Up to this time I sup- 
posed that if all else failed women could be sure 
of getting housework to do. As lack of experi- 
ence is the rule and not the exception, I suppose 



194 Light on Dark Places 

her attitude is to be attributed to the fact so 
many women demand that servants shall be of 
a menial and inferior appearance. I have fre- 
quently heard women talking in this tenor, often 
expressing themselves so ungrammatically I 
could scarcely keep from laughing at them. 

The head of our department recently raised the 
salary of one of the greatest drunkards on the 
Isthmus from $125 to $150 a month. The happy 
man celebrated by a three days' spree. Perfectly 
consistent. Perfectly logical. Don't you think 
so? 

The only possible way to insure justice in the 
raising of salaries of government employes would 
be to have a rule that they should be advanced 
periodically, as the employe remained in service, 
until they reached the maximum allowed, which 
should be positively stated. The clerks in the 
Cristobal postoffice, working nights, days, Sun- 
days and holidays for $100 a month, got theirs 
raised to $125 by going in a body to the director 
Di posts and stating they would leave at once if 
this raise was not granted. The registry clerk 
was on her vacation at the time. When she re- 
turned she hoped until her heart was sick that her 
salary would be advanced. But it was not, so 
she asked an influential friend who was a friend 
of one of the great ones of the earth to inter- 
cede for her and at his intercession her salary was 
immediately raised to $125 a month. 

I will now give you my version of the flying 
visit of the greatest ruler on earth. As there 
are none of the sons of Saint George here to dis- 



at Panama 195 

pute about the title I will not have to stop and 
have a fight. 

The "Louisiana" arrived November 15th, very 
late. Everybody that could had planned to meet 
the president when he landed. Mr. Maltby gave 
his clerks permission to go to the dock before 
coming to the office next morning, but Mr. Tubby 
said we must work until 9 o'clock, then we might 
go and meet the president, but he landed before 
schedule time and left Cristobal before we were 
allowed to leave the office. I heard reports of 
his doings as he tore around the Isthmus and as I 
did not attempt to follow him, most of what I 
write you is hearsay. He eluded his escort and 
saw some things they did not want him to see. 
He found the workmen's quarters at one place 
in very bad condition and commanded them put 
in order "Inside of ten days," saying, "That 
doesn't mean ten days, it means inside of ten 
days — nine days." 

He went into the commissary and found fault 
with the high prices and asked the manager who 
was getting the profit. The manager said, "I 
do not know, I am not." (???) He declined 
the elaborate meal prepared for him at the 
Tivoli Hotel and went to one of the government 
messes. I wonder if he labors under the delu- 
sion that they would dare serve him with the 
same sort of food that they serve to the em- 
ployes ? I did not cross the Isthmus to go to the 
reception they gave him at Panama, but went to 
the one on the pier at Cristobal. With the help 
of an amiable lady in Colon I managed to get a 
new white dress made to wear on this great occa- 



1$6 Light on Dark Places 

sion. Mrs. Roosevelt was with the president and 
looked very brilliant and pleasant through the 
whole performance. His voice gave out several 
times during his speech. He was often inter- 
rupted by a very tall man who, I presume, was 
hired to do so. One question he bellowed out 
was, "How about Toultney Bigelow?'" Mr. 
Roosevelt responded, "Are you referring to the 
boat?" They have named a little boat they use 
on the reservoir at Colon "Poultney Bigelow." 
He made very complimentary remarks about 
American citizens and their wives. I wish 
American citizens were always so addressed. It 
reminded me of the following newspaper com-' 
ments: "Now that the elections are over the 
Sovereign People will once more sink back to 
their usual title — the working classes." He said 
that he wished his boys were old enough to come 
down here and join in the work. I wish when he 
gets thru at Washington he would come here 
and join in the work. We were told that he 
would visit our office in the afternoon and were 
instructed to rise when he entered. I told the 
man that sat opposite me that I would not rise 
for any "mere man" that afternoon. I felt sure 
that he would not waste his time coming up 
there and he did not. United States Bilson, the 
bulldog, whose owner works in this department, 
was appropriately decorated with a liberty rib- 
bon in honor of the expected visit. As soon as 
the president finished his speech he left the pier 
and boarded the "Louisiana." 

Then dancing began and I stayed long enough 
to have the pleasure of meeting a good many 



at Panama 197 

friends I had not seen for some time, take in the 
costumes and admire the beautiful decorations 
of United States flags, bunting and palms artistic- 
ally arranged about the dock. 

I will not write the paper for you telling of 
the Indians, among whom I used to teach, for 
reading on the evening you wish to devote to 
Indian study, for you can get what will be vastly 
better, viz., "The Ojibway," by Mr. Gilfillan. 
The author lived and worked among the Minne- 
sota Indians for about twenty years. The book 
contains valuable, reliable information, not fairy 
stories. 

The Indians on the Isthmus that I have seen, 
both real and pictured, are very inferior in ap- 
pearance to the North American Indians I saw. 
There were some very fine-looking people among 
the latter. Were there not pictures of Isthmian 
Indians on some of the post cards I sent you? 
There are not many here because the Spaniards 
killed so many when they came here. 

I do not know whether Bishop Baldwin is liv- 
ing now or not, but if he is and Elinor has an 
opportunity of hearing him when she is in Can- 
ada she must not fail to take it. I have never 
heard any preaching that I admire as much. I 
presume I had heard the following verse a hun- 
dred times, more or less, but I never understood 
it until I heard him read it : 'That which is born 
of the spirit is spirit and that which is born of 
the flesh is flesh." Then for the first time I 
realized what it meant. On my return to the 
States I remember telling a minister about my 
trip to Canada and saying in all seriousness, "I 



198 Light on Dark Places 

do not know whether many people would agree 
with me, but I think Bishop Baldwin one of the 
finest preachers there is." He replied, "A great 
many people agree with you. He is considered 
the finest in Canada." Dr. van Dyke is well 
worth hearing, but as I remember Bishop Bald- 
win, there is no comparison between the two. 

The next day, Sunday, I went to Gorgona to 
dine with one of the ladies who came down on 
the same boat I did. I met the engineer from 
New York who worked in the Division of M. & 
R. H. when I did. When on his vacation he re- 
ceived a letter telling him not to return to that 
division and afterward a telegram telling him to 
return and report for duty in another division. 
He discovered later that our old friend the chief 
clerk had given the head of the division the 
choice of discharging the engineer or else suf- 
fering the loss of his valuable clerical services. 
He disliked the engineer for the reason that he 
understood his business, I suppose. I had a very 
pleasant day at Gorgona. When returning we 
ran over a colored man, cutting off one leg far 
above his knee, and I think, killing him — I hope 
so — he was so mutilated. A fearful sight. The 
school teacher at Cristobal and a nurse from 
Ancon were in the car with me. The nurse went 
right out to see what she could do, but I sat still 
and shuddered. 

Two weeks ago the water at Cristobal smelled 
so horribly an expert was sent for to analyze it 
and he found some drowned negroes in the res- 
ervoir. 

I had a nice time Thanksgiving, was invited to 



at Panama 199 

dine at Colon and had a very fine dinner. I 
wish I could show you a picture of my hostess. 
She looks as though she had stepped from some 
old painting. 

I have been tormented with roaches and mice 
ever since, my return. When I first saw one of 
these big roaches traveling toward me over the 
floor I thought it was a small mouse. A lady 
who has lived in the tropics manv years tells me 
that there is no getting rid of them until the dry 
season comes. I have fixed rough on rats with 
sugar and laid poisonous powders about, but all 
to no purpose. I watch them play tag by the 
dozens every night and my bureau is a regular 
hotel for their housing. Every time I open a 
drawer out run the roaches. It reminds me of 
some of the bug pictures in "Life." A friend 
of mine has just gone home and I have charged 
him in the name of mercy to inquire what is sure 
death for roaches and send it to me. What these 
pests want to hang around in my room for I do 
not know. Everything eatable that I have is 
kept in sealed glass jars or tin boxes, but they 
eat the covers of my books, especially a red cover. 
I had a souvenir post card sent me from Jamaica 
and something- about that tasted good to them, 
for they nearly ate off one corner of it. I chase 
them with the hammer or anything I can grab 
hold of and am getting as dirty as a small boy, 
for when nothing else is convenient I catch the 
small ones in my fingers rather than let them 
escape! I saw a big one last night standing on 
his hind legs chewing the red cover of my Span- 
ish dictionary, which I had placed on the top of 



200 Light on Dark Places 

a pile of books. I went for him with the ham- 
mer, but he got away. One evening when our 
literary club met in my room I looked up and 
saw a big roach on the top of my bureau ; point- 
ing at it, I said, "There is one of those miserable 
things," and he flew straight for me. Every- 
body laughed and Mrs. Snow said, "You should 
not point." This reminded me of what a man 
told me about roaches in New Jersey. He said 
when they ran over the table he tried to chase 
them off, but instead of running from him they 
always turned and faced him ready for battle. 

I saw a new novel about the Isthmus to-night ; 
a love story, and the author refers to the Isthmus 
as the "Waist of the World." The newsdealer 
called my attention to it when I was buying 
magazines. I glanced thru it and saw something 
about the "Pinions of passion." I wonder if they 
would look well on a hat. If there are any on 
sale in Buffalo and you think they will harmon- 
ize with my style of beauty send me a pair. If 
I write anything for publication there will be 
no "pinions" or no "passions;" just facts. 

December 3, 1906. 

Last night we had the heaviest rainfall this 
year. It washed out a mile and a half of rail- 
road track and stopped traffic between here and 
Panama. 

It is reported that Assistant Chief Engineer 
John G. Sullivan is going to leave the Isthmus 
on Thursday, that he is mad, and has been for a 
long time. Ditto, for me, but I do not think I 
will get away next Thursday. 



at Panama 201 

You know how much plainer foreigners talk 
than American men do. A Frenchman some- 
times dines at the same table I do at the Astor 
House. He had just returned from Panama and 
we asked him what the latest news was. He 
said that the news that was all over Panama was 
that the wife of a prominent official had worn 
such an extremely decollete dress at the recep- 
tion to the president that "the gentlemen were 
all grateful, the ladies scandalized." One of the 
other ladies reproved him for speaking so plainly. 
He said he could not see that he had said any- 
thing, and he had told the truth. 

This calls to mind the amusing plain-speaking 
of another foreigner in a Massachusetts village. 
Being an accomplished musician, he became 
popular in society. Several of the single ladies 
gave a party to the single men. Some of them 
were not as young as they had been and he said 
it was their last desperate attempt to get them- 
selves husbands. . This reached the ladies' ears 
and aroused their wrath, so he said he would 
take it all back — it was not their last attempt to 
get themselves husbands. 

Following is a letter written by one of our 
disappointed fellow-citizens. He asked me to 
typewrite four copies for him. It is addressed 
to the chief of our division: 

COPY. 
Dear Sir: 

I have the honor to hereby tender my resigna- 
tion as clerk in your department. 

It is with reluctance that I am taking this step, 



202 Light on Dark Places 

thereby severing my connection with the greatest 
work ever undertaken by men, and in whose serv- 
ice I intended to spend my future life, but the 
mistreatment received from the Department of 
Labor and Quarters since my arrival on the 
Isthmus, well known to you, and your refusal to 
retransfer me to the main office at Cristobal 
makes my determination irrevocable. 

I trust that you look at this matter in the right 
light, not as a personal affair, and that your de- 
cision in the case may be guided by fairness. 
Very respectfully yours. 

They let him go, for he was nothing but an 
earnest, honest citizen of the United States. 

In the July number of the "Ladies' Home 
Journal," in an article entitled "New Things to 
Eat," is a picture of a nut they call "leitchees." 
I wish I could get as good pictures of other 
tropical fruits to send you. This nut grows in 
Panama and the day I visited the gaging station 
and was so hungry I picked some up and ate 
them. It tastes almost exactly like a raisin, but 
sickishly sweet, and after I had eaten three or 
four I could not eat any more. I can easily eat 
two dozen raisins. I do not like any tropical 
fruits beside those usually sold north. Some peo- 
ple like mangoes. These look like very large, 
coarse plums and taste like a horrible combina- 
tion of a pumpkin and a plum. The pit is three 
inches long and is covered with a thick fiber 
which extends into the fruit. I have dried a pit 
to send to you and you would never guess what 
it is, covered with this dried fiber, The alii* 



at Panama 203 

gator pear is a large pear-shaped fruit, the skin 
of which somewhat resembles a quince. The 
meat is nothing like that of a pear. It is more 
of a vegetable than a fruit, and many people eat 
it as a salad with pepper, salt, vinegar and oil. 
I ate them twice to try and discover why some 
people like them so much, but failed to. One 
lady told me she and a friend acquired such a 
taste for them in the tropics that when in New 
York they paid 40 cents for one and divided it 
between them. Then there are rose apples. The 
first two bites taste like tea rose petals, the next 
two sickish to swallow. This apple is pinkish 
green and about an inch in diameter. The in- 
side resembles that of the little seed ball in a 
rose. Cachu apples are much the shape of large 
peppers, but are bright red and yellow, the skin 
having the appearance of that of our apples. 
They are finished on one end with a hard green 
substance the shape of a lima bean, with the ex- 
ception that it widens at the end which is fastened 
to the apple. I ate one to tell you how it tasted 
and it was the most astringent dose I ever swal- 
lowed. I learned afterward the natives regard 
them as a heaven-sent remedy for dysentery, 
which is often epidemic when the rainy season 
begins. I arranged several of these fruits that 
you have never seen and had them photographed 
for you, but the negative spoiled. 

Have you read my friend "The Country Con- 
tributer's" effusion in the November "Home 
Journal," thus?: 

"A woman wrote me the other day asking me 
if I thought that getting through with a 'big 



204 Light on Dark Places 

day,' such as I described on this page in a former 
issue, should be held up as a clever thing to do. 
It had never occurred to me that there was any 
question of cleverness about it. It was merely 
the history of a day's work and play in the life 
of a young woman who was only beginning to 
learn what life requires of her. 

"Women are always on the lookout for clever 
achievements by members of their sex. They 
demand of their sisters that they do something 
remarkable, something to be 'held up' as clever. 
The truth is, women are not very clever. Sweet 
bunglers they are when they try at art or aspire 
to business. My object in writing of common 
little daily experiences and mistakes is to create 
among us the feeling to bring if I may, to a few 
at least who understand, a realization that daily 
life is very much alike for us all, and that the 
glamor which hangs about the 'clever' woman is 
all a fancy — she lives and moves and has her be- 
ing exactly as the rest of us do ; she has her vex- 
ations, her limitations, her weaknesses of heart 
and flesh just as we, who never think of be- 
ing 'clever/ do." 

If she knew what she is writing about she 
would know that women who are battling with 
the world have no time to spend trying to be 
"clever." It is all we can do to manage to keep 
our heads above water. "Sweet bunglers they 
are when they try at art or aspire to business." 

If she had ever been in a stenographer's shoes 
when she made a mistake in some man's work she 
would realize he considered her a "bungler," but 
would have no intimation that he considered her 



at Panama 205 

"sweet." When we are so lacking in brains that 
we are habitual "bunglers" it is apt to be because 
our fathers were. I wish that the majority, in- 
stead of the minority, of women who keep board- 
ers would be "clever" enough to learn how to 
cook well and have something fit to eat for the 
"Sweet bunglers" when they crawl home at night. 
If more of the women whose duties are in the 
home would spend the care on their work that 
is demanded of those in business there would be 
less medicine taken for indigestion. I wonder if 
she thinks the woman who painted "Scotland 
Forever" was a "bungler," or Rosa Bonheur or 
Hetty Green? If you have never seen a copy of 
that magnificent piece of perspective "Scotland 
Forever" make it your business to do so. 

I had no mice before I left, but now they are 
worse than the roaches. The man who was quar- 
tered in my room when I was on my vacation 
kept sugar cane lying around, the janitor says. 
Every time a boat comes in I go up to the com- 
missary to see if any mousetraps have come. 
Always the same answer, "No mousetraps on 
this steamer," yet the Zone is alive with mice — 
good management at the commissary. A friend 
of mine finally found one for me in a Chinese 
shop, which catches the mice alive. The married 
lady in the next room told me that she stopped 
the janitor just as he was going to cut a mouse's 
head off with the scissors and made him drown 
it. U. S., the bulldog, has killed nearly every 
cat in Cristobal and several distracted people who 
are trying to keep cats to exterminate the mice 
sent word that if he did not stop killing their 



2o6 Light on Dark Places 

cats they would kill him. So U. S. has been 
sitting mournfully at one end of a rope for sev- 
eral days. 

They are selling oranges shipped from New 
York at the commissary for 75 cents gold per 
dozen ; 50 cents would be a good price for them. 

The Isthmian Canal Commission formerly al- 
lowed the native merchants to accept coupons in 
payment for their goods, but just before I came 
to Panama this was stopped. These coupon 
books are issued by the commission to employes 
and payment for them kept back from their sal- 
aries. It was a great convenience to the em- 
ployes to be able to use these books at the most 
convenient shop, and it gave the native merchants 
a great deal of trade they are now obliged to re- 
fuse because there are so many people here who 
cannot be trusted. The wholesale nouses in the 
States can sell as well to the Isthmian merchants 
as to the purchasing agents of the commissary 
and would not be liable to a demand for a rake 
off from a grafter. I have been told that it in- 
creased the business of the commissary 75 per 
cent, after the merchants were not allowed to 
accept coupons. Therefore the expense to the 
United States Government for the transporta- 
tion of necessary goods to the Isthmus must be 
vastly increased. 

If the commissary is run solely for the bene- 
fit of employes why should they be hounded into 
buying there? 

Merry Christmas. This is a little previous, 
but I mean well. Yours, etc. 

P. S. — Please send me a sure death mousetrap. 



at Panama 207 

Cristobal, January 15, 1907. 

A terrific storm began December 23 which was 
so violent that incoming ships could not come to 
the dock and those that were docked had to move 
out to prevent being banged to pieces. They 
lay tossing at Porto Bello (Beautiful Port) un- 
til the following Friday. The Christmas mail 
could not be delivered and members of several 
families who had come down to spend Christmas 
with the others were unable to land until after 
Christmas. One of the many brides who have 
come down here to be married was cruelly parted 
from her waiting groom, who paced the shore 
and watched the vessel that contained the beloved 
one tossing on the waves. The road along the 
water front was a series of enormous mud pud- 
dles, loaded with dead trees, rocks, reefs of coral, 
etc., washed ashore by the violent storm. It was 
all cleaned off once and the next day it was as 
impassable as before. I enclose photo taken be- 
tween showers. You can see the wind is blow- 
ing the palm trees, but this gives only a sugges- 
tion of its force and the spray caused by the vio- 
lent agitation of the surf. Notice the barrels, 
sticks, stones, etc., and the enormous puddle of 
water. Before the storm that was a smooth 
road without a stick, stone, plank, or barrel in 
sight. 

Many thanks for your presents. I also had 
some nice books and a beautiful Chinese fan 
given to me. The good people at Cristobal cele- 
brated Christmas by giving an entertainment in 
the evening in the dining room of the Cristobal 



208 Light on Dark Places 

Hotel and the Sunday school children received 
their presents. The dolls were all Japanese. 

One of the gentlemen belonging to our liter- 
ary club has started a private mess and I am now 
taking my lunches there instead of the Astor 
House. This reduces the expense of my daily 
rations from $1.35 to about $1.15 a day, as the 
distance is short enough for me to brave the 
noon sun and walk back and forth. 

What a convenience it would be if the meals 
served at the Cristobal Hotel were wholesome 
enough so that it would be safe to eat them. I 
hear there was a little improvement last month. 
They had a white cook who wandered down from 
the States, but he left the 1st of January. He 
told a lady I knew well that he found the kettles 
covered with verdigris and horribly dirty. He 
had them cleaned and threw away a lot of bad 
meat, for which the manager censured him em- 
phatically and told him he should have spiced it 
and put vinegar on it and served it. That when 
the amount of money legally allowed was spent 
letters came from Culebra expressing great dis- 
pleasure, but great praise when less was spent, 
etc., etc. No wonder we constantly hear of peo- 
ple eating at the Cristobal Hotel having ptomain 
poisoning. I am informed that the Manager of 
Labor Quarters and Subsistence will not allow 
any cook paid more than $17.50 a month and not 
enough are allowed even at that price. 

Assistant Chief Engineer John G. Sullivan left 
the Isthmus December 5th. He quarreled with 
Mr. Stevens' special favorite, the General Man- 
ager of the Panama Railroad. It is said Mr. 



at Panama ,209 

Stevens and Mr. Sullivan are each trying to get 
to Washington first to tell his story. The flood 
washed away the railroad tracks and delayed 
their reaching Colon, where they finally arrived 
at the same time and went off on the same 
steamer. 

I have read the article in the "Harper's" you 
sent describing the president's visit to the Isth- 
mus. It is as absurd as many other pieces written 
about the Isthmus and the laborers. The Ja- 
maican negroes talk like the white subjects of 
King Edward in Jamaica, which you may know 
without being told, is nothing at all after the 
manner of the negroes of the United States. The 
"sobbing black giant" had he been a Jamaican 
would have said, "Oh, sir, I just dropped a ten- 
pound sledge hammer on my toe. Do you think 
I am going to die, sir?" I listened to the con- 
versation of the Jamaican negroes with surprise 
until I became accustomed to it. I have spent 
considerable time talking to my washwomen and 
other negroes and have found they speak better 
English than many of the white people who come 
down here. I passed an old Jamaican woman 
selling oranges yesterday and said, "I want some 
oranges, but am going to lunch and do not want 
to carry them. Will you be here when I get 
back?" She replied, "I will be here, dearie, 
when you return." Had she been an American 
negress she would doubtless have said, "Yes, 
honey, I sho will." I asked the nine-year-old boy 
of my laundress, when he brought my clothes, if 
his little brother was sick, because he did not 



2io" Light on Dark Places 

come with him, and he replied, "He is quite well, 
thank you." 

The remarks about the meals are easily under- 
stood. They would not have dared to set the 
food before the president that they give the em- 
ployes. This sentence, "The breakfast came on 
briskly" is greatly appreciated by those who eat 
at the government messes. When the president 
was at Cristobal they were in a panic at the 
Cristobal Hotel, hurrying off the filthy table 
cloths and napkins and replacing them with 
clean ones, fearing he might come bounding in. 
When I ate at the Cristobal Hotel the table cloths 
were often so dirty I could hardly bring myself 
to sit at the table. 

The writer speaks with such scorn of the negro 
laborer who said that he did not take the rotten 
yams back to the commissary to be exchanged. 
If he had stood from one to two hours after a 
day's work among solidly packed rows of per- 
spiring, smelling negroes waiting to buy some- 
thing for his supper, I think he would hardly 
go back to have it changed. I have thrown away 
rotten eggs more than once rather than go thru 
the ordeal of having them exchanged; and I 
was always treated with consideration by the 
negro clerks and waited on long before my turn. 
This was not fair, but I always accepted the 
favor. 

I am not as good as Mr. Reed, the executive 
secretary. One of the clerks in the postomce, 
knowing who he was, attempted to wait on him 
before it was his turn, but he stepped back and 
said, "This man was here before me." Ever since 



at Panama 211 

I have been on the Isthmus I have heard similar 
stories of him. 

The article states that when they galloped 
about Colon "There was a cheering absence of 
the typical Spanish-American smell." They cer- 
tainly were exceptionally fortunate if this was 
the case, but I think the gentleman must be 
severely afflicted with what a little girl I once 
knew called "cat are." 

This is good, too. Speaking in praise of the 
lady school teachers, "Every man there felt 
proud to think that he was of one blood with 
these devoted young women who dare and do so 
much in the line of duty. All without ostenta- 
tion or hope of reward." I was not aware that 
the school teachers receive no salaries. I know 
they do, and I wish every "proud man" there, 
and those who are not there, would see to it that 
women whose work is in the stenographic line 
have a chance to work on the Isthmus as well as 
school teachers. Neither would they spend any 
time in ostentation. 

I enclose a clipping from the Colon "Inde- 
pendent" : 

Bigelow Homestead, 
Maiden-on-Hudson, New York, 

December 21, 1906. 
Dear Sir : 

Will you kindly allow me thru your columns 
to inform the many correspondents whose letters 
I am unable to answer personally that I am not 
connected with any newspaper, magazine or any 
salaried office whatever — that I am simply a plain 



212 Light on Dark Places 

tax-paying American farmer, whose enemies are 
mainly amongst those who like their truth in 
small quantities. 

With my best wishes for the success of "In- 
dependent!" journalism on the Isthmus. 

POULTNEY BlGELOW. 

To Professor Bynoe, Colon. 

To our great regret the Astor House changed 
hands January 1st and has been taken by a man 
from New Orleans. This means just what we 
feared — no fresh fish, no fresh vegetables, poor 
food and just as high a price. I had a severe 
bilious attack and went to the hospital for a few 
days. They now have a white women's ward 
at Colon Hospital. Heretofore they have had 
accommodations only for colored women and 
white and black men, but thru some one's mag- 
nanimous action they have condescended to take 
care of white women when they are ill. I ex- 
pect it was either Matthew Vassar or Henry 
Bergh. When looking for board down here go 
to the best hotels kept by natives, for they take 
the trouble to provide fresh food and hire good 
cooks. I and some others are fortunate enough 
to be allowed to board at the Somerset Cafe at 
Colon after the change at the Astor. The pro- 
prietor is the man who ran the Washington 
Hotel for so many years. When his contract 
with the Panama Railroad Company expired the 
Isthmian Canal Commission took charge and 
placed it under the superintendent of Labor 
Quarters and Subsistence. For a short time the 
food at the Washington was fairly good, then 




Facing page 213 



at Panama 213 

the manager was removed and the same sort of 
food served as at the Cristobal Hotel. 

The many changes prophesied as a result of 
the president's visit are too numerous to men- 
tion. The one which nearly everybody hoped 
for, the removal of Mr. Jackson Smith, was not 
made; quite the contrary. This man, whose 
gross mismanagement of the government eating 
houses has made misery almost incalculable has 
been advanced by President Roosevelt; he has 
been made a member of the Isthmian Canal Com- 
mission and retains what he had. 

I enclose an interesting photograph of the 
M. & S. office force at Cristobal. These are as 
excellent likenesses as such pictures usually are, 
especially when people are facing the sun, how- 
ever it is quite interesting to me, so do not let 
anything happen to it. 

Thru Judge Rerdell's efforts they have reduced 
the price of kerosene at the commissary from 
$1.18 to $1.00 per can. He found that he could 
buy it in Panama from the merchants and have 
it shipped to Cristobal at less cost than buying it 
in the commissary at Cristobal. 

They have canned butter for sale at the com- 
missary which is covered with statements that it 
is the best butter made. I have bought it twice 
and found it spoiled. I think this is due entirely 
to the fact that when taken out of the cold stor- 
age on the ships instead of being put in cold 
storage here it is piled on the shelves in the hot 
commissary. It costs 42 cents per pound. When 
they get good stuff they do not take proper care 
of it. 



214 Light on Dark Places 

You asked in your last letter how the office 
work is conducted if so many incompetent peo- 
ple are employed. These are copies of a few 
letters I have written and they are fair samples 
of the entire correspondence which is dictated 
to me. 

COPY. 

Mr. E. D. Hammond, 

Storekeeper, Empire. 
Sir: 

Reference requisition ELC 51, item 1, two 
generators, engine, priced at $4,000 each. 

You are advised that the correct price of these 
should read $2,000 and the total should read 
$4,000 instead of $8,000. 

These were incorrectly priced to you on trans- 
fer invoice No. 11 54 and you will please change 
your records to correspond. 

Very respectfully. 
Copy to Electrical Engineer, Empire. 

I write countless letters similar to the follow- 
ing: 

"Your attention is again invited to circular let- 
ter sent from this office directing you not to 
combine French and new stock on the same 
requisition." 

I do not know how many letters I have sent 
concerning the negligence of that order, also the 
order to give plate numbers on steam shovel 
parts. Every letter written correcting mistakes is 



at Panama 215 

sent to the man addressed and copies to one, two 
or three other men; which means that each one 
must have his records changed. Consider the 
expense it is to the government to have such a 
large proportion of its office force continually 
making such inexcusable mistakes. It surely 
means tens of thousands of dollars a year. 

COPY. 

Mr. E. D. Hammond, 

Storekeeper, Empire. 
Sir : 

Referring to requisition A. C. 147 dated De- 
cember 5th, item 5. 

Unit price quoted by you, $1.92, is an error. 
The correct unit price is $ .192 and the correct 
total should be $ .yy. Please correct your rec- 
ords to agree. 

Very respectfully. 

Copy to 

Copy to 

COPY. 

Cristobal, January 11, 1907. 
Mr 

Sir: 

Your attention is again invited to the instruc- 
tions issued from this office concerning the issu- 
ing of property as transferred to you. 

As this manner of issuing items under differ- 
ent names is very confusing and causes a great 
deal of unnecessary correspondence, both for 



216 Light on Dark Places 

this office and the different storehouses, etc., etc., 
etc. 



COPY. 

Cristobal, January 8, 1907. 
File JJJ — 7272. 
Mr. L. C. Vannah, 

Storekeeper, La Boca. 
Sir : 

Referring to the numerous mistakes in com- 
putation on requisitions filled by your store- 
house, you are directed jto see to it that more 
care is used in the preparation of same in order 
that these mistakes be reduced to a minimum. 

Reference requisition 537; you will note a 
number of mistakes which are well nigh inex- 
cusable. For instance, items 6 and 7. The unit 
price reads .093, but you have carried out the 
total .10. Only in cases where the total result 
is y 2 of a cent or over should the next greater 
number be used. 

Reference item 12, you make the mistake of 
y 2 a cent the other way, as 3x4^ equals .13^ 
and the total should have read 14 cents instead 
of 13 cents as quoted by you. (See also item 
20.) 

You will please to instruct those in charge of 
this work that they must be more accurate in the 
future. Acknowledge receipt. 

Respectfully, 
Chief, Division M. and S. 



at Panama 217 

COPY. 

Cristobal, January 23, 1907. 
File JJJ — 7404. 
Mr. E. D. Hammond, 

Storekeeper, Empire. 

Sir: 

Referring to requisition E 786, dated Decem- 
ber 17th, item 37, you are advised that the unit 
price should read .027 instead of .036 and the 
total should read .11 instead of .14. 

Item 40; unit price should read .044 instead of 
.04 and the total should read $1.06 instead of .96. 

Item 60; unit price should read .087 each in- 
stead of .95 per dozen and the total should read 
$1.04 instead of .95. 

Item 61 ; unit price should read $6.30 instead 
of $2.94 and the total should read $6.30. 

Item 72; unit price should read $2.33 instead 
of $5.95 and the total should read $2.33. 

Item 96; unit price should read .49 instead of 
.17 and the total should read $1.57 instead of .51. 

Reference requisition E 799, item 54; unit 
price should read .068 instead of .048 and the 
total should read .10 instead of .07. 

Item 77; unit price should read .028 and the 
total should read .34 instead of .24. 

COPY. 

Cristobal, January 11, 1907. 
File JJJ— 7326. 
Mr. E. D. Hammond, 

Storekeeper, Empire. 
jir * 
Reference requisition E 802^ ; your attention 



218 Light on Dark Places 

is invited to the following errors in extensions 
Item 3, total should read .31 



it 


4, 


a 


a 


a 


•51 


tt 


6, 


tt 


it 


a 


.67 


it 


8, 


a 


tt 


tt 


.07 


it 


18, 


tt 


tt 


it 


.67 


ti 


3h 


tt 


tt 


it 


1.65 


ti 


38, 


tt 


it 


tt 


1 .41 


It 


42, 


tt 


tt 


a 


2.04 


ft 


55, 


tt 


tt 


tt 


.24 


tt 


66, 


tt 


tt 


tt 


I.I6 


ft 


7o, 


tt 


tt 


ti 


.17 


ft 


74, 


tt 


tt 


it 


•57 


tt 


92, 


n 


tt 


tt 


1.29 


tt 


93, 


n 


tt 


tt 


I 91 


tt 


97, 


tt 


tt 


it 


1.29 


it 


100, 


tt 


tt 


a 


i-35 


tt 


117, 


tt 


tt 


a 


.88 


it 


145, 


tt 


it 


a 


•25 


tt 


149, 


tt 


it 


tt 


•54 


tt 


206, 


» 


tt 


a 


.24 


tt 


207, 


a 


tt 


it 


.82 


tt 


210, 


tt 


a 


it 


.76 


tt 


218, 


tt 


a 


tt 


.24 


tt 


219, 


tt 


tt 


tt 


•79 


tt 


220, 


it 


tt 


tt 


.64 


tt 


223, 


tt 


ti 


tt 


1.28 


tt 


224, 


tt 


tt 


tt 


.27 


if 


228, 


tt 


it 


tt 


.27 


ti 


230, 


tt 


a 


ft 


1.28 


tt 


231, 


tt 


tt 


tt 


2.01 


ti 


233, 


tt 


ti 


it 


.24 


ti 


234, 


it 


tt 


tt 


1.22 


it 


241, 


tt 


ft 


tt 


I.46 



at Panama 219 

Item 256, total should read .85 

" 258, " " " 1.28 

" 261, " " " .24 

" 264, " " " 9.21 

You will note that most of these errors are 
of but one cent, the fraction of a cent less than 
half being carried to the next greater number. 
You will please see to it that the parties mak- 
ing up these requisitions use more care in their 
preparation and that they are checked before 
forwarding to this office. 

Respectfully, 
Chief, Division M. and S. 

Copy to Master Mechanic, Empire. 

Copy to Supt. Motive Power and Machinery. 

These are fair samples of letters I constantly 
write and are nothing in comparison to those 
others tell me they have in their collections. One 
man has a letter in which the writer asserts there 
are 400 gallons in a barrel. Twice this month 
big bunches of requisitions amounting to thou- 
sands of dollars' worth of goods have been found 
tucked away in out-of-the-way corners that have 
not been invoiced. You can imagine how dis- 
couraging it is for those who are trying to do 
their best to have to work with so many who do 
not understand how to do their work, and some 
who take no pride in their work. It is madden- 
ing for conscientious men who have several un- 
der them for whose work they are responsible. 

I have not read the president's message regard- 



220 Light on Dark Places 

ing his visit to Panama, but every one is com- 
menting about this remark : 

"Moreover, I was given to understand that one 
real cause of the complaint was that at the gov- 
ernment hotels no liquor is served and some of 
the drinking men refused to go to them." 

The president was misinformed when given 
this contemptible excuse for the food served at 
the government hotels. 

This term "hotel" in connection with the eat- 
ing houses of workers on the Isthmus should be 
dropped. The overwhelming majority of work- 
ing people on the Isthmus are those whose sal- 
aries enable them to live at boarding houses, not 
hotels. Neither do they want to pay $2J a 
month for table board, even tho they receive 
board worth $27. I never paid more than $5.50 
a week for table board even in New York City. 
Table board for $4, $4.50, $5 or $5.50 in the sev- 
eral cities of the United States where I have 
been is infinitely better than that in the govern- 
ment hotels on the Isthmus for $27. 

When I was at the hospital a doctor came to 
my room one day and tho I objected, the vampire 
took a drop of blood from one of my ears, and I 
am informed that the specimen was "Negative 
of malaria," which means I have no malaria. 
They test every patient's blood in the same way. 

Our office is located upstairs in one of the De- 
Lesseps houses, for some inscrutable reason mis- 
called "palaces." These were originally large 
comfortable wooden houses with piazzas running 
all around the house, upstairs and down, which 



at Panama 221 

is the only proper way to build houses in hot 
countries. To enlarge the office space they re- 
cently enclosed the piazzas and at certain hours 
in the day the sun pours in on us, grilling us, I 
am sure, enough to satisfy even the gentleman 
with the pitchfork. They wrote to Washington 
for blinds for the windows and an inquiry came 
back as to what kind of blinds were wanted. 
This information was forwarded. Then another 
inquiry came as to what color was wanted. I 
think by the time the blinds arrive there will be 
nothing but grease spots at several of the desks. 

Cristobal, C. Z., March 1, 1906. 

You must not expect me to write oftener than 
once a month, but I will write you a long letter 
each time, full of news. 

How do you think the Hindoo belief of the 
origin of woman compares with the Adam and 
Eve story? I enclose it for your delectation. 

"The Hindoo Belief of the Origin of Woman." 

A very terrible creature indeed is a woman 
and one of strange elements. In the beginning, 
when the Creator came to the creation of woman 
he found that he had exhausted all his materials 
in the making of man and that no solid elements 
were left. In this dilemma, after profound medi- 
tation, he did as follows: 

He took the rotundity of the moon, and the 
curves of creepers, and the clinging of tendrils, 
and the trembling of grass, and the bloom of 
flowers, and the lightness of leaves, and the taper- 
ing of the elephant's trunk, and the glances of 



/ 



222 Light on Dark Places 

the deer, and the clustering of rows of bees, and 
the joyous gaiety of sunbeams, and the weeping 
of clouds, and the fickleness of winds, and the 
timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the pea- 
cock, and the softness of the parrot's bosom, and 
the hardness of adamant, and the sweetness of 
honey, and the cruelty of the tiger, and the warm 
glow of fire, and the coldness of snow, and the 
chattering of jays, and the cooing of the cuckoo, 
and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity of 
the drake, and compounding all these together he 
made woman and gave her to man. But after 
one week man came back to him and said, "Lord, 
this creature that you have given me makes my 
life miserable. She chatters incessantly, and 
teases me beyond endurance, never leaving me 
alone, and she requires incessant attention and 
takes up all my time, and cries about nothing, and 
is always idle, and so I have come to give her 
back again as I cannot live with her." So the 
Lord said, "Very well," and he took her back. 
Then, after another week man came again to 
him and said, "Lord, I find that my life is very 
lonely since I gave you back that creature. I 
remember how she used to dance and sing to me 
and look at me out of the corner of her eye, and 
play with me and cling to me, and her laughter 
was music and she was beautiful to look at and 
soft to touch, so give her back to me." The 
Lord said, "Very well," and gave her back again. 
Then after only three days, man came back to 
him and said, "Lord, I know not how it is, but 
after all I have come to the conclusion that she 



at Panama 223 

is more of a trouble than a pleasure to me, so 
please take her back again." But the Lord said, 
"Be off, I will have no more of this, you must 
manage how you can." But the man said, "I can- 
not live with her." The Lord said, "Neither 
could you live without her." The man said, 
"What is to be done? I cannot live either with 
her or without her?" 

This letter will consist mostly of enclosures 
which is a convenient way to write to you. If 
you want a good description of the wild part of 
this tropical country read the piece in "Recreation 
Magazine" entitled "Jungle Hunting in Panama," 
by the Superintendent of Colon Hospital. I re- 
member Florence specially asked me about the 
tropical forests some time ago. 

Note the clippings from the Isthmian papers 
about the horses : 

HELP OUR ANIMALS. 

Now that we have a good supply of water 
laid on in our streets may we not consider for 
the wants of the poor animals who toil hard dur- 
ing the day and so erect drinking troughs at cer- 
tain spots where they can be led to slake their 
thirst? The higher order of animals need no 
leading nor direction to the places provided for 
them to satisfy their cravings, so go, as we may 
say, instinctively; therefore those who have a 
touch of human nature about them should for the 
benefit of the dumb beasts of burden take the 
matter in hand and make provision for them. 

This appeared in the Colon "Starlett" Febru- 
ary 8, 1907. 



224 Light on Dark Places 

Panama, February 2, 1907. 
Editor Star and Herald: 

While I was promenading up Central Avenue 
yesterday at the close of the day's work I noticed 
near Santa Ana Park a "cabby" whipping his 
steed mercilessly without getting it to make a 
move. Any one could see at a glance that the 
horse had been "run to death." The driver would 
not listen to remonstrances, but let his whip fall 
on him again, and suddenly the horse fell across 
the sidewalk and broke one of the shafts. It was 
cab No. 81, and the black driver after getting the 
horse on his feet had to lead him off, leaving the 
hack on the street. 

There is a wide field for a humane society 
here. Observer. 

From the "Star and Herald," Panama. 

I heard that they had opened a grill at the 
Cristobal Hotel and went there one noon to see 
if the food was eatable, with the view of always 
lunching there. To my disappointment I learned 
that it was only after 7 o'clock in the evening 
that special orders were served, so I ordered the 
regular lunch and this is what it consisted of: 
Watery soup, a chunk of sour liver, half cooked, 
poor quality of canned vegetables, a piece of 
leather called pie and slop coffee. I paid for it 
and left it uneaten. 

I send you a bill of fare from the grill at the 
Washington Hotel. Do you see anything in the 
prices asked that would indicate that this restau- 
rant is not run for profit? 



at Panama 225 

WASHINGTON HOTEL 

RESTAURANT. 
SPECIAL FOR TO-DAY. 

MENU. 

February 10, 1907. 

SOUP. 

Consomme, .15. Clam Chowder, .15. 

Clams Stewed, .25. 

Shrimp Stew, Oyster Stew, .25. 

FISH. 

Boiled Salt Mackerel, .25. 
Salmon Salad, .35. Buttered Shrimp on Toast, .50. 
Grilled Sardine, .30. Lobster Mayonnaise, .35. 

ENTREES. 

Braised Beef, Pepper Sauce, .25. 
Chipped Beef in Cream, .25. 

EXTRAS. 

Roast Turkey, .50. Roast Chicken, .45. 

Fricasseed, .40. 

Half Broiled Spring Chicken, .75. 

Cold Boiled, .35. 

CHOPS. 

Pork, Veal, Mutton, .30. 
Veal Cutlet Breaded, Tomato Sauce, .40. 

STEAKS. 

Tenderloin, .45. Porterhouse, 1.25. 

Sirloin, .75. 

Mushrooms, .15. Celery, .15. Olives, .20. 

VEGETABLES. 

Asparagus Tips, .20. 



226 Light on Dark Places 

Peas, Corn, String Beans, .10. 
Butter Beets, Stewed Tomatoes, 

Creamed Potatoes, ,10 
Mixed Pickles or Pickled Onions, .10. 
Succotash, .10. 

CHEESE. 

Neufchatel, .15. Camembert, .15. 

Peaches in Cream, .15. Preserved Fruit, .10. 

Stewed Prunes and Cake, .10. 

Oranges, .10. Apples, .10. Fruit Salad, 40. 

Grape Nuts, 10. Force, .10 

Iced Tea or Coffee, .10. 

Hot Tea, Coffee or Cocoa, .10. 

By the pot, .15. 

TO-DAY'S SPECIALS. 

American Milk, .50. 

Dozen Oysters Raw, .40. Fried, .50. 

Oyster Cocktail, .25. 

Before Governor Magoon left the Isthmus he 
said, when asked by so many to allow women to 
come here and fill clerical positions, that he 
would consider it when the Hotel Tivoli was fin- 
ished. The Hotel Tivoli was built supposedly 
for quarters for the employes, but now that it is 
completed it is understood it is for tourists and 
any one who can pay the price, which has been 
placed at such a figure as "to exclude the resi- 
dence there of the poorer clerks." The follow- 
ing letter was written to me in answer to my in- 
quiry for rates: 



at Panama ' 227 

COPY. 

HOTEL TIVOLI, 

UNDER THE MANAGEMENT 

OF THE 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, QUARTERS 

AND SUBSISTENCE. 

Ancon, Canal Zone, 
February 19, 1907. 
Miss Mary A. Chatfield, 

Care Division of Material and Supplies, 
Cristobal, C. Z. 
Dear Miss Chatfield: 

Your letter of February 18, 1907, requesting 
rates at the Tivoli Hotel. The permanent I. C. C. 
rates at this hotel from the first of March will 
be $50 and up per month. 

The transient rates are $3.75, $4-75, $5-75 and 
$6.75 per day. From these rates we give to 
I. C. C. transients a reduction of 33 1-3 per cent. 
The account, however, to obtain this reduction 
must be paid in hotel meal coupons. 

To get the permanent I. C. C. rates it would 
be necessary to make application for quarters 
thru the head of your department. 

Very respectfully, 

J. B. Brown, 

'Assistant Manager, 

I also enclose a luncheon bill which I took 
away with me the day I boarded there and a 
picture of the hotel : 



228 Light on Dark Places 

COPY. 

HOTEL TIVOLI 

LUNCHEON. 

Radishes. 

Chicken Soup. Baked Filet Halibut. 

Imperial Boston Baked Beans. 

Roulette de Beouf. 

Boiled Cabbage. Potatoes Hollandaise. 

Cold Beef and Ham. 

DESSERT. 

Apple Pie. Assorted Cakes. 

Cheese. 

Edam. American. 

Demi Tasse. 

How does this luncheon bill compare with that 
of hotels in the States charging the same rates? 
The butter was strong enough to walk. 

The rooms and furniture, for the Isthmus, 
were fair, but only what you would find in a 
good boarding house in the States. For some 
inscrutable reason the architect, or the builder, 
or somebody, failed to put transoms over any of 
the doors and I nearly stifled the night I spent 
there. You can have no conception of the dif- 
ference it makes in the torrid zone not to have 
means provided for the air to circulate. You 
might have the whole of one side of a room open 
and unless there was an opening on the oppo- 
site side it is stifling. But I was not aware that 
transoms were omitted from the doors of build- 
ings nowadays, even in the temperate zone. 

It is reported that Mr. Shonts has resigned 
from the chairmanship of the I. C. C, also that 



at Panama , 229 

John F. Stevens has resigned. All sorts of rea- 
sons are given, and many do not believe it. 
What do you think of the following? 

COPY. 

Empire, C. Z., February 21, 1907. 

In reply refer to File B-491. 
Mr. W. G. Tubby, 

Chief, Division M. and S., Cristobal. 
Dear Sir: 

Referring to a conversation had in your office 
on the 19th instant, regarding corrections on in- 
voices after they have been taken up by the de- 
partment. This matter has been given further 
consideration in connection with the Mechanical 
Department. It appears that the Mechanical 
Division is not anxious to make small corrections, 
nor does it seem to me that it is necessary for us 
to do so. 

I have looked over a good many of the cor- 
rections that have been made and find that most 
of them are small and insignificant. 

The Superintendent of Motor Power and Ma- 
chinery is trying to keep his accounts correctly 
and when you make a correction advising him 
thereof he goes back to his records and makes a 
similar correction. This requires a great deal of 
work without very much benefit. There seems 
to be no reason why those small errors should be 
taken into consideration at all, at least those er- 
rors that are not deducted until after-the requisi- 
tions have been taken into account by the division 
officers. 

Is there any reason why we should not estab- 



236 Light on Dark Places 

lish a minimum of $2? No correction on an in- 
voice to be made unless the net corrections on 
same exceed $2, all corrections exceeding that 
amount to be listed on a statement at the close 
of the month, so as to show the invoice reference, 
the amount of correction and the account to be 
effected. The Superintendent of Motor Power 
and Machinery will be entirely satisfied with 
such a correction sheet and it will save him a 
good deal of work and our accounts would be 
practically as correct as they are now, and I be- 
lieve it would be the most satisfactory way all 
round. 

If such a plan would disturb the money values 
on your stock cards, where particular items are 
affected, resulting in some cases in a credit with- 
out any material and in others a debit without any 
material, an adjustment could very easily be made 
at the end of a month or a period, and I think 
it could be done much more easily than to spend 
so much time in handling corrections. I think 
it would be safe to assume that the corrections 
exceeding $2 are very rare. 

I notice in preparing some statistics relating 
to corrections that out of 100 errors in prices 
your storekeeper at Gorgona was responsible for 
14 — the one at Paraiso for 7, and the one at Em- 
pire for 79. It would appear that there must be 
a great deal of carelessness at Empire for such 
a state of affairs to exist. 

When the price book on which you are now 
engaged is ready for business there should be 
very few errors in prices and the corrections 



at Panama 231 

problem will almost work itself out without any 
further action. 

Will you kindly advise me if you can see any 
objection to the above plan, which I have out- 
lined involving a minimum correction of $2. 
Yours truly, 

H. L. Stuntz, 
Local Auditor. 

Are you reading Jack London's story, "Before 
Adam"? One of the nurses told me that she 
believes, with the author, that we are descended 
from monkey-like beings, and when we dream 
of falling thru space she thinks the memory of 
our subconscious selves is taking us back to 
ante-Adamite times when we were monkeys fall- 
ing thru trees. She may be right, but I disagreed 
with her. I do not believe we fell thru the trees 
when we were monkeys, if ever we were mon- 
keys, for we would have cast our prehensile tails 
around the nearest limb and swung happily and 
carelessly in the breezes and not fell at all. 

I think this is the best valentine I ever saw. It 
was printed in the February "Scrap Book." Per- 
haps you have seen it. I would send it to some 
man only the conceited creature might think I 
was in love with him: 

"A VALENTINE. 

I wish I wuz a pint er stout, an' you the only 
mug here that didn't leak, an' all about was nary 
pail nor jug. here. I wish I wuz the figger one, an' 
you the hour hand rusty, of my old clock that 
never'll run, just stickin' there so trusty ! I wish 
I wuz in that 'ere jar, the last cent's wuth er 



232 Light on Dark Places 

taffy, an' you the only boy there ar' ez hungry's 
a giraff-e ! I wish I wuz a lump er coal, an' you 
the shinin' fender; within them claspin' arms my 
soul 'ud glow out warm and tender! I wish I 
wuz a thoughtless mouse, an' you the only 
Thomas that ever corned intu the house, you'd 
hev me then, I prommus." 

The water pipes in Cristobal are all leaking 
because they were not laid properly. They say 
that every job the Municipal Engineering De- 
partment has done has to be done over. The 
former resident engineer here was discharged a 
few months ago, but it took two years for those 
above him to find out that his work was not done 
right. 

The Chinese w r ere celebrating their new year 
February 13th and thereabouts. It lasted three 
days or more. There was a continuous popping 
of firecrackers with the usual effect on horses 
and folks that do not like that kind of a racket. 

On the 17th of February a German tourist 
boat, said to be the largest steamer ever in this 
harbor, anchored off Colon. It certainly was a 
large vessel. Its passengers went by special 
train to Panama and back. I was glad to see it 
come and have the passengers go over the 
Isthmus and I hope there will be many such tours 
to the Isthmus at any and all times, for I think 
nothing annoys grafters and dishonest officials 
more than to have the "Public Eye" turned on 
their work. 

I enclose Circular No. 113, dated February 
20th, issued by the chief engineer: 



at Panama 233 

Culebra, February 20, 1907. 
Circular No. 113. 

The following rules and regulations covering 
the granting of leave of absence and sick leave 
adopted by the commission at its meeting held on 
February 13, 1907, will become effective April I, 
1907 : 

An employe whose salary is fixed on an annual 
or monthly basis will receive no pay for over- 
time work. Such employe may be granted, in the 
discretion of the head of the department in which 
employed, with the approval of the chairman or 
the chief engineer in the absence of the chair- 
man from the Isthmus, or of a representative 
designated by either of them, leave of absence for 
each twelve months' service as follows : 

Six weeks' leave of absence with pay, if said 
leave is to be taken in the United States, or thirty 
days' leave with pay, if leave is to be taken out- 
side of the United States. This leave is not to be 
accumulative for more than one year, and may 
be granted any time after ten months' service. 
No portion of same to be allowed, however, until 
the completion of the required ten months' 
service. 

If such leave be granted, an employe will be 
furnished the government rate on the steamers 
of the Panama Railroad and Steamship Com- 
pany, operating between the United States and 
Colon. This grant of leave of absence is not a 
vested right, but is made to promote the welfare 
and interests of the service, and compensation 
for the period of leave will not be payable until 



234 Light on Dark Places 

the first pay period after the employe returns to 
the Isthmus and resumes his duties. 

If an employe after ten months' service shall 
have been declared by a medical examining board 
of the Department of Health to be physically 
unfit for further service upon the Isthmus or 
after ten months' service he shall have been dis- 
charged on account of reduction of force, he 
may, at the discretion of the head of the depart- 
ment in which employed, with the approval of the 
chairman, or the chief engineer in the absence of 
the chairman from the Isthmus, or of a repre- 
sentative designated by either of them, be granted 
six weeks' leave of absence with pay, and may 
be paid in the United States for this period of 
leave without returning to the Isthmus. 

Employes not reporting for duty within ten 
days after expiration of leave will forfeit right 
to pay for leave period. 

An employe whose compensation while on duty 
carries with it subsistence will not be entitled to 
subsistence or commutation in lieu thereof while 
on leave of absence. 

An employe whose compensation while on duty 
carries with it quarters will not be entitled to 
quarters or commutation in lieu thereof while on 
leave of absence. 

All employes on the gold rolls shall be entitled 
to sick leave with pay, as follows : 

Upon the certification of an authorized physi- 
cian in the service of the Department of Health 
of the Isthmian Canal Commission in the Canal 
Zone, that the employe has been unable to work 
on account of illness or injury, payment for not 



at Panama 235 

to exceed fifteen days for each period of six 
months' continuous service may, by direction of 
the head of the department in which employed, 
with the approval of the chairman or the chief 
engineer in the absence of the chairman from the 
Isthmus, or of a representative designated by 
either of them, be made, such payment to be 
shown on the first pay roll after the expiration of 
the six months' period of continuous service for 
which sick leave is granted ; and then only when 
the time rolls of the commission show that the 
employe has worked 96 per cent, of the legal 
working days or hours, or those declared to be 
legal by the commission, during the period, less 
the time the employe is absent from duty on ac- 
count of sickness, which must be properly cer- 
tified to, or thru orders, other than disciplinary 
ones, of an authorized officer of the commission. 

The amount of compensation to be paid any 
employe to whom sick leave is granted, under 
the conditions as herein mentioned, will be cal- 
culated at the rate at which such employe is car- 
ried on the rolls of the commission at the time 
of said illness, and in the case of an employe 
working on an hourly basis such calculation shall 
be based upon a day of the legal working hours. 
No leave on account of illness, as above de- 
scribed, shall be accumulative. 

An employe may be granted, in the discretion 
of the head of the department in which employed, 
with the approval of the chairman or the chief 
engineer in the absence of the chairman from 
the Isthmus, or of a representative designated by 
either of them, such sick leave on account of in- 



236 Light on Dark Places 

jury incurred in the performance of duty, not 
exceeding thirty days in any current year, as 
may be necessary while such employe is inca- 
pacitated from duty by reason of such injury. 
The amount of compensation to be paid an em- 
ploye to whom sick leave on account of injury is 
granted, under these conditions, will be calcu- 
lated at the rate at which such employe is car- 
ried on the rolls of the commission at the time 
of his injury; and in the case of an employe ap- 
pointed with rate of pay per hour, such calcula- 
tion shall be based upon an eight-hour day. Such 
sick leave on account of injury, as herein men- 
tioned, may be granted to an employe in addi- 
tion to the sick leave above provided. Such sick 
leave on account of injury shall not be accumu- 
lative, and payment for same will be made on the 
first pay roll following its authorization. 

Signed Jno. F. Stevens, 

Chief Engineer. 

This circular has caused no end of ill feeling 
and dissatisfaction. The withholding of one's 
pay for six months when absent from work on 
account of sickness practically robs one of their 
pay. Six months is a long time ahead on the 
Isthmus. One might get so full of malaria in 
the meantime that the best thing to do for one's 
self and the government would be to leave the 
Isthmus. It is extremely unjust to deprive a 
person of their salary when ill, especially in this 
trying climate, as there is a limit to the sick 
leave. The making of rules which make posi- 
tions here less desirable than those in first-class 



at Panama 237 

business houses, of course, has the effect which 
is plainly desired, the keeping away from the 
Isthmus of first-class workers and the driving 
away of those who have come to a climate where 
they expected that more privileges would be 
given to employes rather than fewer. Of course, 
inexperienced people and dissipated people and 
all those that a business man would not want 
are the ones who are content to remain here 
any length of time, because of the policy pur- 
sued, to the great detriment of the work. Of 
course, the favored ones drawing fancy salaries 
will not feel the hardship of unjust rules. 
Neither do I believe that favorites lose a day's 
pay when absent from the office. It is easy 
enough to find some "official business" for them 
to attend to, and when absent on official busi- 
ness pay is not deducted. 

Up to the time this circular was issued em- 
ployes were taken under a contract that after 
eight months' service on the Isthmus they would 
be granted six weeks' leave of absence with pay, 
and if they desired to remain twenty-one con- 
secutive months in service they would be granted 
twelve weeks' leave of absence with pay, spend- 
ing such vacation where they chose. What busi- 
ness is it of the Isthmian Canal Commission if 
employes desire to spend their vacation in Europe 
rather than in the United States? Many people 
preferred to let their leave of absence accumu- 
late and take their vacation every two years. 
Men with families, on account of the expense of 
traveling with so many, and many single people 
prefer it, because it is a very usual thing to be 



238 Light on Dark Places 

sick a month when going to a healthy climate 
after leaving the Isthmus, and people do not like 
to feel that they have got to spend all of their 
vacation in bed. By issuing this circular the 
government breaks the contract it has made with 
those employed under the agreement above, and 
it has been the cause of much dissatisfaction and 
discontentment. In fact, it has been the instiga- 
tion of labor trouble among a certain class. Im- 
mediately after it was issued the railroad con- 
ductors held a meeting condemning such action 
and at once set about formulating a new schedule, 
requesting an advance in salaries and more favor- 
able sick leave and vacation privileges. 

I hear the steam shovel men say that if their 
vacations are not allowed to accumulate they 
will stop work. 

I expect to leave here very shortly and stop at 
Costa Rica on my way back to the States. 

Port Limon, Costa Rica, 

April 24, 1907. 

I had this letter written before I left Colon in 
short hand, but did not have time to typewrite my 
notes. 

You are mistaken in thinking I was so un- 
fairly treated only because I am a woman. Men, 
without backing, are as unjustly treated after 
they arrive. Of course, their passage is paid 
and they are started on $125 a month, which are 
not small matters to be considered. I had one 
advantage due to the kindness of the men directly 
over me, viz., when calling out men for night 



At Panama 239 

Work they have never ordered me out, and I think 
if I had been a man they would have. 

Following is the experience of a young man 
who came down here. One morning I saw a new 
stenographer at a desk next to mine and I won- 
dered what sort of a person he might be. The 
third day I went over and spoke to him and 
glanced over some letters he had written and saw 
that he was Ai, which surprised me. He said, 
"Will you tell me what in the world you are doing 
down here?" I said, "Will you tell me what in 
the world you are doing down here? You are 
the sort that ought to be here, but there are not 
many like you." He said, "I worked in the De- 
partment of Justice two years in Washington, 
then I had a difference of opinion with the man 
over me, so asked for a transfer to the Isthmus." 
"Well," I said, "What do you think you are in 
now ?" He said, "My God, I don't know. I can- 
not eat the food at the Cristobal Hotel. I have 
to go to the Washington Grill and that makes it 
very expensive." I advised him that it was 
much cheaper to pay $30 a month and board at 
the Astor. He said he did not care to go to a 
place where they were drinking and swearing as 
they did in so many of the hotels. I told him 
that those who wished could eat in the ladies' 
dining room, where no one was allowed who did 
not behave. He had an ambitious streak one 
day and, wishing to get an extra lot of work 
out, stayed nearly all lunch hour to do it. Dur- 
ing the afternoon he nearly fainted. It is very 
unwise to skip a meal and work when it is the 
proper time to rest down here. The longer he 



240 Light on Dark Places 

stayed the more disgusted he became. Finally 
the man who dictated to him went on his vaca- 
tion and the entire work in that line, requests for 
articles to be manufactured on the Isthmus, was 
passed over to him. He had to dictate to himself, 
as it were. A few days afterward I said to the 
man who dictated to me, "I think Mr. Hale must 
be very lonesome for his dictator, don't you?" 
He said, "Yes, he is awfully lonesome. You go 
over and ask him if he does not feel lonesome 
for his dictator." I did so and he said, "It 
would not be proper for me to use language to 
you that would express how I feel about my dic- 
tator." I was told that it was the worst mixed-up 
desk in the office and he was trying to straighten 
it out. He resigned in disgust the next morning, 
as a boat was going that afternoon to New Or- 
leans, and asked for a clearance and this is what 
was sent out to him : 

"Cristobal, March 4, 1907. 
This is to certify that Mr. Robert Hale has 
been in the service four months and four days 
and is leaving on four hours' notice. Mr. Hale's 
services were satisfactory. 

W. G. Tubby, 
Chief of the Division Material and Supplies'* 

He turned as white as he did the day he went 
without his lunch and showed us the letter. Then 
he went to the private office to protest. This is 
the gist of the conversation: He said to our 
chief, "Since I have been here I have worked 
hard for you every day, I have often been called 



at Panama 241 

out nights and Sundays and I do good work and 
I am entitled to a better letter than this." 

The chief alluded to his resigning on such 
short notice and Mr. Hale explained that he had 
been given two men's work to do and that the 
other man had left his work in such confusion 
that it was almost impossible to straighten it out. 
"But," he said, "if you will pay me what it is 
worth I will withdraw my resignation." Then 
the chief informed him that he had accepted his 
resignation. He cannot present even that recom- 
mendation because he took a big blue pencil and 
wrote "Lemon" all over it. Now this is a man 
whose work would make him valuable to any 
business man. I know from many things he had 
said to me during the time he had been in the 
office that he resigned because he was disgusted 
and not to try to get a raise in salary, but when 
he got that recommendation it made him so mad 
he went in to remonstrate. 

They next put another $125 man at that desk. 
I watched him with interest. He would go 
prowling among the papers, trying to straighten 
things out, then sit and look blank for a while, 
then fly at the typewriter and work like a beaver, 
then do more digging. After a few days he gave 
up and said he could not do it. Then they put 
a $175 man on that work and when I left he 
was digging for all he was worth. Mr. Hale was 
just as good a man and he would have remained 
for $150 a month. 

Another clerk who had been a milk man in the 
States was given a position in the office here and 
worked until his vacation was due. When they 



242 Light on Dark Places 

tried to take up his work it was in such confusion 
no one could make head nor tail of it. I heard 
that they had to send for an experienced book- 
keeper to straighten things out. Then they wrote 
the man and discharged him. 

You remember the letter on the magazine cover 
stating that the president wished everybody to 
report things that they knew were going wrong 
on the Isthmus and he would see that no one 
was injured by so doing. One man tried it. He 
saved bills from the commissary showing the 
excessive prices charged. Then he wrote to the 
same business houses in the States that had sup- 
plied the goods to the commissary and asked 
them what they would charge him for the same 
goods delivered at Colon. They replied, giving 
lower prices than he had paid at the commissary. 
He took the bills and the merchants' letters and 
sent them to Washington. From Washington 
they were sent to Chief Engineer Stevens. Mr. 
Stevens handed them to Jackson Smith and Jack- 
son Smith discharged the man, who was em- 
ployed in one of his offices. "Well," I said, "if 
any American would take such a treatment as 
that and not put it in every paper in the United 
States we have sunk lower than I thought we 
had." "He is not an American," said my in- 
formant, "he is a 'bally lime juicer, don't you 
know.'" (That means an Englishman.) I said, 
"Jackson Smith would not have dared discharge 
an American like that." "Yes, he would," was 
the reply. 

J have heard that the steam shovel men re- 



at Panama , 243 

quested Mr. Stevens to discharge Jackson Smith 
and he told them that he could not do it. 

The prices on the bill I sent you from the 
Washington Grill have been raised! Half of a 
broiled chicken now costs 90 cents instead of 75 
cents. I have often gotten half of a broiled 
chicken in New York City for 60 cents, other 
cities from 30 to 50 cents, much nicer than any- 
thing ever served at the Washington Grill. Some 
of the things served at the grill are as good as 
you would get at a restaurant run for profit, but 
most are not, and the prices are all as high and 
higher. 

On March 12th I sent the following letter: 

COPY. 

Cristobal, March 12, 1907. 
Mr. W. G. Tubby, 

Chief, Division Material and Supplies, 
Cristobal, C. Z. 
Sir: 

I tender my resignation as a stenographer in 
the Division of Material and Supplies, to become 
effective April 9th, and request transportation to 
the city of New Orleans, United States. 
Very respectfully, 

Mary A. Chatfield. 

Mr. Hale's leaving made them a stenographer 
short and another stenographer's vacation is soon 
due, but I gave them ample notice. I expected to 
sail on the 9th in a boat of the United Fruit Com- 
pany and stop over at Costa Rica, but finding 
that this line would not allow me to stop over 



244 Light on Dark Places 

at Costa Rica because there is yellow fever in 
Port Limon, I deferred my departure to take 
a steamer sailing later on another line, because I 
was resolved to see Costa Rica. I was permitted 
to change the date of my resignation. 

On March 19th, at a smoker given in honor of 
the visiting congressmen, one of the steam shovel 
men delivered a speech in a jocular vein which 
was a clever roast on Jackson Smith. I do not 
remember all I was told, but part was : 

"They tell us we can bring our wives down 
here, but when we get here they tell us we must 
wait six months before applications for married 
quarters will be considered." 

That question of married quarters is a burning 
one. People should receive their quarters in turn, 
but many married people have been eating, sleep- 
ing and cooking for months in one room, while 
others who have been here hardly any time are 
provided with nice quarters. 



March 27, 1907. 

I was rash enough to go down to the Washing- 
ton Grill for lunch. I paid 50 cents for one leg 
and second joint of a tough, bitter-tasting fowl 
that was listed on the bill of fare "Roast Chick- 
en," 10 cents for a cup of bad coffee, 20 cents for 
a small dish of canned mushrooms, cab fare each 
way 10 cents. One dollar for a very poor lunch. 
Hurrah for the United States! I will soon be 
there and Jackson Smith does not run the restau-. 
rants. 



r at Panama _ 24S 

Good Friday, March 29, 1907. 

I had to walk to and from Colon to-day in the 
hot sun, but I was glad of it. Good Friday is 
the only day in the year in the Spanish- American 
countries they let the cab horses rest. There was 
not a cab out and Mrs. Snow says that it is the 
custom in other Spanish-American countries. I 
am sure the Saviour is glad he died for this rea- 
son if for no other — these poor, miserable beasts 
are spared one day's torture every year. 

Tho I promised you pictures of my room long 
ago this is the first opportunity I have had to 
have them taken. I send them in this letter. 

You say you have read that there are fine en- 
gineers on the planet Mars and advise that one 
be sent for to dig the canal. Your suggestion is 
good. Send the engineer. Mr. Stevens has not 
left the Isthmus yet. Dame Rumor thinks she 
has found out all about it and says that he ob- 
jected to the Oliver Company having the contract 
to dig the canal and wrote President Roosevelt 
"the most dictatorial letter ever written to a 
president of the United States," threatening to 
resign if he did not have his way. The president, 
after consulting with his advisors, sent a cable 
to this effect: 

Letter received and resignation accepted. 

The work is to be put in charge of army engi- 
neers. I hope the management of the whole 
Isthmus will be raised above its present low level 
by this change, and I believe the army engineers 
are men more like Colonel Gorgas. 

I told a young man here that some of my 
friends want me to write up my experience on 



246 Light on Dark Places 

the Isthmus and said, "If I could write in the 
style of Lord Macaulay I would do so." He said, 
"What is the style of Lord Macaulay?" And I 
read him the following: 

THE CROWNING OF PETRARCH. 
Nothing can be conceived more affecting or 
noble than that ceremony. The superb palaces 
and porticos by which had rolled the ivory chari- 
ots of Marius and Caesar had long moldered into 
dust. The laureled fasces, the golden eagles, the 
shouting legions, the captives and the pictured 
cities were indeed wanting to his victorious pro- 
cession. The scepter had passed away from 
Rome. But she still retained the mightier in- 
fluence of an intellectual empire and was now to 
confer the prouder reward of an intellectual 
triumph. To the man who had extended the 
dominion of her ancient language — who had 
erected the trophies of philosophy and imagina- 
tion in the haunts of ignorance and ferocity, 
whose captives were the hearts of admiring na- 
tions enchained by the influence of his song— 
whose spoils were the treasures of ancient genius 
rescued from obscurity and decay — the Eternal 
City offered the just and glorious tribute of her 
gratitude. Amid the ruined monuments of 
ancient and the infant erections of modern art, 
he who had restored the broken link between the 
two ages of human civilization was crowned with 
the wreath which he had deserved from the mod- 
erns who owed to him their refinement, from the 
ancients who owed to him their fame. 



at Panama 247 

Never was a coronation so august witnessed by 
Westminster or Rheims. 

T. B. Mac aula y. 

When I finished he said, "If you are going 
to write like Lord Macaulay you will have to 
learn English." I told him to go home. 

A lady who thinks as I do about Burbank's 
combinations sent me this clipping : 

"IN A LUTHER BURBANK GARDEN. 
White are the coreless apple buds, 

As your hand in mine I clasp, 
And we wander through the eyeless spuds 

And the raspberries, sans rasp. 

You plucked a blackberry, dazzling white, 

As we chanted a tuneless rune, 
And I took a luscious, soulful bite, 

Of a pitless, skinless prune. 

The cactus plant ne'er cackles now, 
As its teeth have all been drawn, 

And calm there falls upon your brow 
The light of a sunless dawn. 

In this dear place I would live for aye, 

Discussing the whyless how, 
And speeding the minuteless hours by, 

From the path of the pathless now." 

When I was boarding in California I walked 
thru the kitchen one day and seeing some tempt- 
ing berries on the table, took a couple. They 



248 Light on Dark Places 

were so sour I snatched them out of my mouth 
and thru them as far as I could. Then I went 
in to my landlady and said, "I stole some of your 
berries and I wish I had not. I never tasted 
anything so sour in my life." She said, "Those 
are Burbank's Logan berries. He took a black- 
berry and a red raspberry and made" I in- 
terrupted her with, "a monstrosity." She 
laughed and said that they were awfully sour 
and she seldom bought them, but her son thought 
he would like a Logan berry pie, and that she 
would have to put two pounds of sugar in one 
small pie and then it would not be sweet. They 
say the combination flowers which he has juggled 
together wilt in no time, and I am sure they are 
not any prettier, if as pretty, as the others. 

You may not be as interested in my posses- 
sions as I am, but every object in my room is a 
treasure to me; even the rough shelves have a 
story in connection with them. 

My room is so small and narrow I wanted 
some shelves very much to get my things out of 
my way. Mr. Tubby's secretary went to Labor 
and Quarters office and asked if he might have 
the M. & S. carpenter put up some. Nothing 
can be done without permission. They said they 
would have to ask the Department of Building 
Construction. The Superintendent of the De- 
partment of Building Construction said he would 
not allow the Material and Supplies carpenter to 
do it, but would have his carpenter do it as soon 
as he had finished putting up one shelf in a room 
upstair and for me to be ready for the man to 
begin work at 7 o'clock the next morning. I 



at Panama 249 

was all ready, but he did not come, and the next 
morning he did not come. Then I asked the car- 
penter why he had not come to my room the 
morning before. He said he had had further 
orders to take out the windows upstairs and put 
in wire screens and I would have to wait several 
days longer. I then went to the Superintendent 
of Building Construction and reminded him that 
he had promised to have the shelves put up in 
my room two days before. He replied, "There 
aint no money in calling a man downstairs be- 
fore he is finished upstairs." I said, "I have 
been waiting three months for those shelves and 
if your carpenter cannot put them up now will 
you allow Mr. Wellman to have the M. & S. car- 
penter put them up?" He said, "Mr. Wellman 
aint got no business interfering with my busi- 
ness" and turned his back. I left. Then he sent 
for Mr. Wellman and told him to not let his car- 
penter put up the shelves. I suppose he was 
afraid I would persuade him to do so. This is 
probably red tape. After a while the shelves 
were put up and you see what a comfort they are 
to me. The candlestick on the second shelf I 
bought in San Francisco. The tea canister near 
it at a Chinese store in Panama. The prayer 
book and hymnal traveled with me from Connec- 
ticut. The big shell is a lovely pink in the in- 
side which does not show in the picture. A na- 
tive boy brought a basket of them to my room 
one day and asked me to buy this for a dollar, 
Panamanian. I asked him to change a five-dollar 
United States bill and he said, "If I had five 
dollars gold I would not be carrying this basket 



250 Light on Dark Places 

of shells around" in a way that indicated five 
dollars was an enormous sum to him. So I 
thought I would surprise him and gave him a 
dollar gold for the shell. I think he expected me 
to beat him down on the price instead of giving 
him more. I never had an alarm clock before 
I came here and I never will be without one 
again, for it gives me such a safe feeling to 
know that the alarm will go off when it is time 
to get up. Beyond the clock you see the glass 
containing my paint brushes and pencils, then my 
dictionary, my bible, my Spanish books and a 
few books of poetry. Two cups and saucers on 
the next shelf I bought at Chinese shops and one 
at the commissary. The cut-glass rose bowl came 
with me from Connecticut to San Francisco and 
down the Pacific Coast to Panama. The pile of 
books in the corner on the lower shelf are back 
numbers of the "Philistine." 

'Way back in May, 1902, Elbert Hubbard 
wrote an even more eloquent appeal for the poor 
children working in the factories in the South 
than Edwin Markham's recent articles on this 
subject. Read that piece at your next meeting. 
Also "Beauty as Collateral," in the April number 
of the "Philistine," signed Alice Hubbard. I 
never read anything better about women and sel- 
dom anything as good. 

You see my kitchen on the first table. The 
second holds" my work box and several other 
boxes, and when I want to do a little pressing I 
unroll that paper and cloth and use the little flat 
iron on the corner shelf in the other picture. 
When I buy soda crackers here it is much more 



at Panama 251 

expensive matter than it is to go to a grocery in 
the States and get a 5-cent box of Uneeda bis- 
cuits. They sell nothing less in the commissary 
than a whole big tin box, for which I must pay 
60 cents gold, and I always have to give away 
half of them or they spoil. That big black spot 
on the door is my traveling cap, and if I had had 
any idea how funny it would look in the photo- 
graph I would have taken it down. That is my 
ice box in the corner. The drawers of the nice- 
looking bureau which should be such a con- 
venience are empty because the mice and roaches 
insist on living in them to such an extent that I 
cannot keep my clothes in them. You see my 
favorite Madonna on the wall and the corner 
the roaches have eaten off: I pasted the Madon- 
na on that pasteboard with photograph paste one 
evening, also several other pictures on other 
pasteboards and the next morning found that the 
roaches had nibbled corners off of every one. 
The dove on the Easter number of the "Home 
Journal" shows very nicely, but my photograph 
in the opposite corner is very faint. What do 
you think of my den? When we have our liter- 
ary meeting at my room we are quite crowded. 

April 1, 1907. 
Mount Hope Storehouse was over half burned 
to the ground this noon. Accounts of the value 
of the property destroyed vary, but it is generally 
considered to be something more than $150,000. 
This fire started about fifteen minutes after the 
force had left for lunch. Secretary Taft was 
going to inspect the storehouse immediately after 



252 Light on Dark Places 

the noon hour, but when he arrived there was 
comparatively little to see. This is a very unfor- 
tunate occurrence. I have a paper weight as a 
souvenir. It is composed of Tobin bronze and 
naval brass melted together in the fire. 

I took a walk around the island one evening 
with a gentleman and passed some of my ac- 
quaintances without seeing them and the follow- 
ing document was their revenge : 

COPY. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION, 
CANAL ZONE, 
ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 
CIRCULAR 69. 
Beginning with April 1st all stenographers in 
the employ of the Bookkeeping Division of the 
Division of Material and Supplies will be re- 
quired to be in their rooms between 9:30 P. M. 
and 6 130 A. M. 

The provost guard will inspect quarters be- 
tween 9:30 P. M. and 11 P. M and occupants re- 
ported not in quarters will be detailed to Mount 
Hope. 

All persons found outside of their quarters 
after 11 P. M. will be detained until morning 
and required to appear before Judge J. M. Law- 
ton. W. G. Tubby, 
Chief, Division M. and S. 
Note : Mr. Benson will bring this to the atten- 
tion of his stenographers. 

I found this on my desk the next morning. 



i at Panama 353 

The signature of the chief of the division is very 
cleverly imitated. 

The following is the property of one of the 
clerks, who passes it around when so disposed, to 
have another opinion added : 

COPY. 

RETURN TO C. R. B. 
M. & S. Clerks. What is your idea of a lemon? 

1. A life sentence on the Isthmus. F. H. P. 

2. A position with the "Great Northern" at 
$48 per. C. E. F. 

3. A day's board at one of the L. & Q. "Bean- 
eries." C. R. B. 

4. $75 in commissary books. C. W. K. 

4. One night in Colon Calaboose. A. W. R. 

6. Three weeks' vacation after spending two 
years in H. 

7. Wanting to leave the Isthmus and can't. M. 

8. I. C. C. circular No. 113. V. C D. 

9. P. R. R. train service. Gil. 

10. Boarding at the "Paris," Panama. 
G D. F. 

11. Three flights up and no bath. L. E. W. 

12. Not getting position to v/hich you were 
appointed. E. 

13. To have the son of a certain soul saver 
calling on one's lady. W. CB. 

14. A never-ending job (not position) of 
shuffling papers in the M. & S. office. J. C. K. 

15. The putty medal (bluff) tendered by his 
nibs "Teddy." H. L. 

16. 20 per cent, increase for the canal em- 
ployes. J. W. C. 



254 Light on Dark Places 

17. The grading of M. & S. clerks. O. W. H. 

18. "Nigger" cops on the Canal Zone. HC. 

19. "Working Saturday afternoons." B. J. 

20. When you have been touched, drugged, 
down and out and unable to quench your thirst or 
hunger or a night's experience at Palace Navajo. 
P. W. 

21. No. 5 expresses it beautifully. W. R. H. 

22. To get in line P. D. Q. and resign. S. 

23. View of Colon from bow of steamer. 
E. W. W. 

24. A job in the lumber division. G. A. C. 

25. Having it rubbed in by a nigger when 
your hands are tied. L. E. B. 

26. J. Smith's smile. Anon. 

27. The "Big ditch." V. L. C. 

28. I was told of the lemon grove on the 
Isthmus. I doubted. I came. I have seen. My 
idea is that it is (to quote the ad. writer of the 
"Road of a 1,000 Wonders") "Just as the man 
said." M. C. 

I will explain the second No. 4, which, I sup- 
pose, should have been numbered five, "One night 
in Colon calaboose." Three of the clerks pass- 
ing thru Colon one evening became very inter- 
ested in the case of a prisoner in the Panamanian 
police station. They stood just outside the door 
and listened and were ordered to pass on. They 
went out into the middle of the road and watched 
and a policeman came out and told them to either 
pass on or come inside. They went inside and 
were promptly arrested and put into cells and 
stayed there until the alcalde came down the next 
morning and ordered them released. When they 



at Panama 255 

appeared late at the office with their tale of woe 
one of the other clerks said that was a joke, but 
it was on them. 

"The putty medal bluff." When the president 
was here he said every one who worked on the 
Isthmus should have a medal, and, I think, a 
pension. It doesn't matter. We will never get it. 

April 4, 1907. 

To-day they passed another petition to every 
employe in the room requesting them to donate 
50 cents to buy a present for the chief engineer. 
The first one was a request to sign their names 
under a verse to this effect : 

We request you to withdraw your resignation 
and promise to serve you with greater loyalty 
than before. 

There were a few lines more of that sort of 
rubbish. A few of the men and myself were 
brave enough to decline to sign it. I was aston- 
ished to see men signing it who had expressed 
themselves as furious over Circular No. 113. 
This eloquent appeal was circulated before the 
circumstances, as afterwards published, were 
known. I thought it was our chief clerk's pri- 
vate affair and said I would like to oblige him, 
but would not ask a man to withdraw his resigna- 
tion who allowed such rascality in the commis- 
sary, but was told it was not our chief clerk; 
that they were running petitions thru lots of the 
offices asking every employe to sign. We heard 
later that they were sent up to the newspapers in 
the States. Days afterwards the 50-cent petition 



256 Light on Dark Places 

was hanging on the bulletin board with a request 
that those who had not paid up would do so. 

April 6, 1907. 
I wrote a note to our chief to-day asking for 
letter of recommendation if my work had been 
satisfactory while in his service and received the 
following : 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION, 

CANAL ZONE, 

ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 

Cristobal, April 6, 1907. 
F-7467. 
To Whom Concerned : 

This is to certify that MissM. A. Chatfieldhas 
been employed in the Division of Material and 
Supplies, Isthmian Canal Commission, Canal 
Zone, as stenographer from December 1, 1905, to 
April 9, 1907, and is now leaving her present po- 
sition of her own accord to return to the United 
States. 

Miss Chatfield is a thoroughly competent ste- 
nographer and while in our employ has per- 
formed any and all duties assigned to her in a 
very satisfactory manner. 

W. G. Tubby, 
Chief, Division of Material and Supplies. 

Yet he would not pay me a stenographer's sal- 
ary. Responding to your request to know what 
we are studying at our literary meetings, I en- 
close a copy of my report of our last meeting, 



at Panama 257 

which I wrote to our absent president, inter- 
spersed with explanatory remarks for your in- 
formation. 

I can imagine your amazement at the frivolity 
thereof as compared with your meetings. Make 
allowances for the climate, etc., please. 

Cristobal, 1907. 
Dear President : 

The White-Faced Monkey Literary Society 
met last night at Chatfield H 'all (Hole in the 
Wall) and deplored your continued absence. 

(I am the only member who calls it by this 
name.) 

We followed our invariable custom and com- 
bined literature with festivity. 

The readings were mostly Longfellow's poems. 
Our idea was to celebrate the anniversary of 
Longfellow's death, tho we were rather late about 
it. Mrs. Emmett read "Beware" with great elo- 
quence and expression. Her delivery was much 
admired. 

This was followed by the reading of one of 
the new books of epigrams by Mr. Warner. One, 
"A plain face and no figure have been many a 
woman's passport to heaven," so impressed Mrs. 
Emmett that she stopped stirring the pudding 
sauce and laughed immoderately. 

(I bought a can of Libby's plum pudding for 
part of the lunch.) 

Mr. Benton and Mr. Archer were also invited. 
Mr. Benton is suffering from an ulcerated tooth 
and declined to present himself with one side of 
his face larger than the other. This was a great 



258 Light on Dark Places 

disappointment. Mr. Archer has not been seen 
since drawing his last pay check and we presume 
he is in a brown study somewhere endeavoring 
to decide whether the International Banking Com- 
pany is a safe place to invest it. I was also dis- 
appointed in not being able to have floral decora- 
tions in the shape of Mr. Plant from Gatun, but 
unavoidable circumstances prevented this pleas- 
ure also. 

(There was a false alarm recently which caused 
a run on the International Banking Company.) 

The evening passed off happily with the ex- 
ception that Mr. B., who was our guest of honor, 
while endeavoring to avoid walking over Mr. 
Warner, struck his funny bone on the edge of 
the bureau. He set his teeth and looked unutter- 
able things in two languages. I suggested that 
he relieve his feelings by saying Caramba, but he 
said that would not begin to express them. 

I wanted to read the "Legend Beautiful," the 
theologian's second story in the "Tales of a Way- 
side Inn," but I could not borrow or buy Long- 
fellow's Poems on the Isthmus. One store had 
a small book which contained a few and we had 
to content ourselves with that. I remember the 
first opportunity I had to express my admiration 
of the "Legend Beautiful" in a practical manner 
after reading it. I met a little girl struggling 
up the steps of one of the elevated railroad sta- 
tions in New York with an enormous basket of 
clothes and tried to induce her to let me help her, 
but she firmly and persistently refused. I ex- 
pect the poor child thought I intended to run off 
with the basket. That is the only time similar 



at Panama 259 

effort has met with a similar result so do not let 
this discourage you. 

I suggested that we read Whittier, as it was 
past Longfellow's anniversary, as I had read that, 
tho not so popular, he was the better poet, and too 
refined for ordinary people to appreciate — but 
everybody said simultaneously, "Then it's Long- 
fellow for us." 

The piece in the April number of the "Ladies' 
Home Journal" entitled "A Day in a Tropical 
Forest" is an excellent description of tropical 
animals. That grinning beast sleeping on the 
rock is a very common sight down here. I have 
seen several carried thru the streets by the tail 
by colored men. They are said to be excellent 
eating. 

Saturday evening, April 6, a farewell reception 
was given to Mr. Stevens on the Cristobal pier. 
I enclose photograph of it. 

You would not think this was a bare old 
wooden pier, would you? The palm branches 
look so graceful on the posts and the flags take 
the bare look from the beams. The speech-mak- 
ing was opened by Mr. Bierd, General Manager 
of the Panama Railroad, Mr. Stevens' special 
protege, who said, "We are here for the sad task 
of bidding farewell, at least for a time, to the 
chief engineer." Some one shouted, "Louder!" 
but his voice got so low it could hardly be heard 
unless one was close to the platform. Mr. 
Stevens talked louder than Mr. Bierd, but could 
not be heard very far. I was nearer the platform 
by that time and heard him say he knew he had 
the respect of every American citizen. This was 



26b Light on Dark Places 

the first time I had heard he had any great re- 
gard for the American citizen and again thought 
of the newspaper squib, "Now that the elections 
are over, the Sovereign People will again become 
the working classes." At one time during his 
speech I heard the word "woman," but could not 
make out what he was saying on that interesting 
subject. A gentleman I knew standing near me 
said, "He is upholding woman suffrage and said 
that women ought to vote." I said, "He is not. 
How could he be saying anything like that on an 
occasion like this?" But he insisted that he was 
ri^ht. Later another gentleman told me what he 
said was, "Next to the pleasure I felt when the 
woman I loved accepted me, is the pleasure of 
learning how much the people on the Isthmus 
think of me." He must have taken the signa- 
tures on those petitions seriously. A lady I know 
says he is daft on the subject. She stood so near 
him when he was making his farewell speech in 
Panama she heard all he said, part of which was, 
some people had circulated the story that he did 
not want women on the Isthmus, but he was glad 
to have them on the Isthmus, and proposed a 
health be drank to all women on the Isthmus. 

As I sat talking to a friend the chief clerk of 
the Division of Meteorology and River Hy- 
draulics came to me and said, "Good evening." 
I looking FREEZING, tho only nine degrees 
from the equator, but vouchsafed a frozen "Good 
evening." Presume had I been a good Christian 
I would have been gracious and continued the 
conversation. I wished I had not answered at 



at Panama 261 

all ; then I wished I had said more, then I did not 
care either way. 

Next day, Sunday, I took a long-planned trip 
to the ruins of San Lorenzo. Having been up 
very late the night before, I felt too tired, but 
knew that if I did not go then I probably never 
would go. The Fort of San Lorenzo was cap- 
tured by one of the lieutenants of Morgan, the 
pirate, in the year 1669. You can get all the de- 
tails in the "Story of the Spanish Main," by 
Maysefield. They destroyed the fort at Porto 
Bello in the preceding year. I took the train at 
Cristobal at 9 o'clock for Gatun, that being the 
place to take the boat down the river. Just before 
the train reached Gatun it ran over a cow. This 
unpleasant incident was quite upsetting and the 
odor filled our nostrils for a long time. I could 
not think of anything else and would have been 
carried past Gatun had it not been for the delay 
caused by a broken coupling just as we stopped 
at the station. They never call the names of the 
stations on the Panama Railroad, consequently 
many people are carried past their destinations. 
I heard one man telling another that it was 
Gatun and rushed for the door. Mr. Plant, who 
had arranged to meet me at Gatun station, 
thought I had not come and was just receiving 
the joyful congratulations of his friends on hav- 
ing a date with a lady who had shaken him, when 
I appeared, trembling with the excitement of my 
narrow escape at not being carried past the sta- 
tion. We started up the Chagres in a native boat 
at 10 o'clock. These boats are hollowed out of 
the trunks of trees and you move about in them 



262 Light on- Dark Places 

at your peril. You must not drag your hands in 
the water either unless you are willing that some 
hungry fish shall make a meal of them. The na- 
tives call them cayucas. It was very warm until 
the sun, fortunately, went behind a cloud. We 
passed huts on the banks of the river which 
looked just like those on post cards I have sent 
you. We saw parrots and other gaily colored 
birds flying about, but no monkeys were visible. 
The boatman said the woods are full of them, 
but they stay on the higher ground and do not 
come down to the river. We reached San Lor- 
enzo about 12 130 P. M., having been rowed about 
seven miles, then started to climb the hill to the 
fort. It was long and steep and the tropical sun 
was pouring down. I stopped a third of the way 
up and vowed I would not go a step farther. My 
escort told me to take hold of the belt of his 
coat and he would help me; as I still refused to 
move he got behind me and pushed. I expect he 
consigned me to almost any place, but did not say 
so. When he began to push me up the hill my 
thoughts immediately flew back to a steep hill in 
New York City near Columbia University, where 
one icy cold winter I used to watch the electric 
cars push heavy wagon loads of coal up the slip- 
pery tracks. It was paved with asphalt and 
horses could hardly pull up heavy loads when it 
was slippery. The fort is built chiefly of mas- 
onry, but there are some bricks around the 
arches which look in good condition even after so 
many centuries. Illustration 1 shows the place 
we walked thru. Illustration 2, one of the cham- 
bers we entered which contains some of the old 



at Panama 263 

instruments of torture. These were, I under- 
stand, placed around the ankles and necks of 
prisoners. Spanish cruelty! 

The only picture I could get you of the top of 
the fort has a lot of picnickers around it, which 
gives it a festive appearance that is entirely lack- 
ing. We ate our lunch in this cupola, which is 
much larger than it appears to be in this picture. 
When we went down we went thru all the look- 
out towers and dungeons. I have not pictures of 
the towers at San Lorenzo, but those at Porto 
Bello are similar, and I send you pictures of them 
and two other views of Porto Bello. We saw. 
several piles of old cannon balls of different 
sizes. 

I had an opportunity to go to Porto Bello the 
following Sunday, but had had enough of trav- 
eling around in the tropical sun and more than 
enough of red bugs. These pests invariably get 
all over one when they go picnicking in the trop- 
ics and it takes liberal doses of alcohol, applied 
externally, to get rid of them. 

I also send you photo taken in an old Spanish 
cemetery at Porto Bello and a picture of some 
natives of Mindi, a village in the Zone. I am so 
glad that child has those bracelets. I enjoy her 
evident satisfaction in wearing them. 

I should have had a picture of another ceme- 
tery. A young man named Douglas felt that he 
would as soon die as not because a certain lady 
refused to appreciate that he was "tender and 
true," so he came to Panama to work. Hearing 
of the skeletons above ground in the old Spanish 
cemetery he went there with a photographer, ar- 



264 Light on Dark Places 

ranged some skulls and bones around himself, 
had a photograph taken and sent it to the heart- 
less fair one. She wrote him not to do anything 
rash and to come and see her when he came home. 
He boarded where I did in Panama. A friend 
of his told me about these photos and was prom- 
ised me one, but the house where the gentleman 
roomed was burned to the ground and he lost his 
souvenirs and all his clothes, as did all the other 
inmates of the place. 

A petition was circulated thru the office to-day 
which stated that one of the force who had been 
in the hospital nine weeks is destitute and has a 
wife and child dependent upon him. Our chief 
clerk did this to help this man home. Contribu- 
tions varied from $1 to $5. The chief of our divi- 
sion gave $10. 

April 12, 1907. 
The following copy of Congressman Rainey's 
views on Isthmian affairs was pasted on the bulle- 
tin board in the office by some unknown mis- 
creant. It was removed during the noon hour, 
but I borrowed a paper that contained it and 
send you a copy. 

April 15, 1907. 
Representative H. T. Rainey, of Ohio, who ar- 
rived in New York on the 1st of this month, says 
the "New York Herald," said in an interview: 
"I went to the Isthmus on my own account," 
Mr. Rainey said, "spent eight days there, refused 
all courtesies that were extended by officials, 
went thro all the cuts by myself and took meals 




OS 

a 
O 



at Panama 265 

with the white employes and with the common 
laborers. 

I found the commissary department in a bad 
way. More than one hundred personally com- 
plined to me of the food. There is no fault in 
the shipment of the food. It leaves the United 
States in cold storage and it reaches the Isthmus 
in splendid condition. The trouble arises when 
it reaches there. It is supposed to be trans- 
shipped into refrigerator cars. This is not done, 
and the leisurely way in which the frozen meat is 
transferred in the tropic heat quickly renders it 
unfit for consumption. I have proofs that not 
one refrigerator car has been on the docks in 
six months. 

LIKE 'EMBALMED' BEEF. 

As a consequence the meats are not good, dis- 
tinctly otherwise. Stewards told me that the 
mutton had to be treated with a solution of soda 
before cooking in order to remove the green 
mold. 

Then, too, I noticed that all meats were served 
with a strong garlic dressing and I was told that 
this was necessary to disguise the taste. I be- 
lieve that if an investigation is made a scandal 
would be brought to light that would equal that 
of the embalmed beef scandal of the Spanish- 
American war. I had understood that the ob- 
ject of the commissary department was to sup- 
ply food at a cost that would just cover expenses. 
But I found that the stewards were ordered to 
make a profit of at least $50 or $60 from each of 
the dining halls. 

There is no doubt that graft is rife. Take the 



266 Light on Dark Places 

matter of shoes that are issued down here. Shoes 
and other supplies are bought here at wholesale 
prices and are shipped there practically at no cost 
by the government, for the government itself 
practically owns the vessels carrying the sup- 
plies. Yet shoes that can be bought here at re- 
tail for $3 a pair cost $8 a pair down there. And 
this is in face of the fact that one should be able 
to buy shoes down there as cheaply as in New 
York. 

NOT THE SAME LUNCH. 

Recently a congressional party of fifty-three 
visited the Isthmus, and while there were served 
with lunch in one of the dining halls and were 
told that it was the same lunch served from day 
to day to the employes at a cost of 30 cents v I 
can prove that lunch was ordered five days in 
advance and cost $1.65 a head. 

Again, recently some members of commercial 
clubs from St. Louis and other cities visited the 
Isthmus and were s&wed with luncheon in the 
Culebra dining hall. They were told that the 
lunch with the exception of the cigars and wines 
was the same as is served to the employes for 
30 cents a head. Why, the oyster soup alone cost 
30 cents a head. 

The day President Roosevelt visited the Isth- 
mus he was served with a ^o-cent' meal. I found 
out that it was generally understood that the 
president would eat at one of the dining halls, 
so all were ready for him, and had an unusually 
well served lunch." 

Mr. Rainey approved of the Sanitary Depart- 
ment and believes that the canal will be built 



at Panama 267 

I am glad some one is man enough to talk 
straight beside Poultney Bigelow. 

Read the article on the Philippines in the last 
"Burr Mcintosh Magazine." Take special note 
of this paragraph: 

J "Should the time come, in a day, a week, a 
year, five years, when Japan may wish our pos- 
sessions there, she could take them and we could 
do practically nothing to prevent. Of course, our 
'National Honor' would have to be protected. 
After the first great blow we would then set to 
work and after years of preparation and millions 
upon millions of dollars spent we would be able 
to regain our 'Lost Honor.' But that will only 
be when the dull, sleeping people of this sup- 
posedly alert 'Greatest Nation on Earth' finally 
awake and realize the position in which the dema- 
gogic obstructionists in Washington have placed 
us." 

Be sure and read at the next meeting the piece 
entitled "Our American Oligarchy. How the 
Remedy for the Ever-increasing Danger to Our 
Republican Institutions Through the Trust-con- 
trolled Senate Lies in the Hands of the People." 
This was written by Ernest Crosby and published 
in the last "Cosmopolitan." I tear out the page 
and send it to you. 

Our republican institutions are in danger. 
That is a moderate statement of fact, and to make 
light of it is to offer certain proof of a lack of 
insight into things as they are. We are rapidly 
drifting into the hands of that most odious of 
all forms of government, the oligarchy. The 



268 Light on Dark Places 

self-interest of a real democracy tends to make it 
just. The centralization of power in a king is apt 
to produce a sense of responsibility, free from 
petty ambitions and rivalries, and this makes for 
impartiality and fairness. But there is nothing 
which can keep an oligarchy straight. It has all 
the faults of all other forms of government, and 
none of their virtues. It has the absolute power 
of a monarchy without any sense of responsibil- 
ity. It has all the rivalries and envies of democ- 
racy in aggravated form, and its self-interest, in- 
stead of neutralizing this defect by a broad ap- 
peal to equality, is, on the contrary, the sure 
creator of special privilege, inequality and mon- 
opoly. 

Venice was a conspicuous example of the bane- 
ful effect of a commercial oligarchy, such as we 
are building up at present. With all the advan- 
tages of her position on the highway between 
East and West, with all her wealth and enter- 
prise, with her mastery of the seas, she yet fell 
the victim of that internal corruption which in- 
heres in every oligarchy by the very nature of its 
constitution — the prey of insatiable, unscrupu- 
lous, unrestrained, self -conflicting greed. And it 
is an ominous fact that in Venice the seat of this 
disease was the Senate! 

There is a difference between the Venetian and 
the American Senate. The grand seigniors who 
ruled and ruined Venice sat in the Senate hall 
themselves and passed daily from the counting- 
room to the legislative chamber. We have spe- 
cialized things to a higher point than they ever 
did, and we are more economical of our time. 



at Panama 269 

Our lords of finance for the most part send their 
stool-pigeons to the Senate. It would be an un- 
expected act of condescension for any one of 
the half-dozen biggest men of Wall Street to ac- 
cept a senatorial chair. They are not in that 
class. If by chance one or two of them have 
bought a legislature and a seat it is recognized as 
a foible or as a concession to the ladies of the 
family, affording a good excuse for passing the 
winter at a pleasant watering-place like Washing- 
ton. Nobody takes such a legislative career seri- 
ously, and the great man of dollars is rarely 
found in his place. It is the clerks and employes 
of the first rank that must attend to such vulgar 
business. 

And what is the chief business of our official 
Senate at Washington, controlled by the unoffi- 
cial oligarchy of Wall Street? It is to prevent 
any change in the present status of the business 
world, which, as experience has fully proved, is 
peculiarly adapted to the needs of financial graft 
— a system which produced the oligarchy and 
which the oligarchy naturally intends to perpetu- 
ate. The fountain of wealth which gushes out 
from the natural resources of our country in re- 
sponse to the labor of man ought to irrigate fairly 
the whole surface of the land, and its waters 
should circulate in abundance wherever men con- 
tribute their volume. Instead of this, we find it 
dammed up in certain places far beyond all rea- 
sonable requirements, and at other points there 
are stretches of unreserved desert from which 
every drop has been drawn. 

Some months ago I walked up Fifth Avenue 



270 Light on Dark Places 

with a man who is prominent in finance and inno- 
cent of any subversive ideas. "Do you know 
who lives in that house?" he asked, indicating a 
handsome residence. "No," was my answer. 
"His name is Blank. Did you ever hear it be- 
fore?" "Never." "Well, he's worth forty 
millions." A few rods further on he repeated 
the same question with reference to another 
house, whose owner I had never heard of and 
who was the possessor of twenty-five millions. 
And still a third time he put a similar question 
and obtained the same answer. "I don't know 
what we're coming to !" he added. "Every week 
I'm hearing the names of these men, utterly un- 
known to me, who are worth twenty, thirty, 
forty and fifty millions !" And in corroboration 
of this I may say that I saw the death of a 
millionaire in one of our cities mentioned inci- 
dentally in the papers some time ago — a man 
whose name was altogether new to me — who was 
said to have left an estate of one hundred and 
eighty millions! Doesn't this look just a little 
bit like unhealthy congestion in a country, too, 
where the number of paupers and tramps is con- 
tinually increasing? We call in the surgeon 
when the circulation of a human being swells up 
in places like this. Is it a more wholesome symp- 
tom in the body politic? 

The immense accumulations of "watered 
stock" in our telegraph, telephone and express 
companies show how much more we have to pay 
for their services than they are worth, and if it 
were possible to ascertain the original cost of 
our railroads the same thing would appear with 



at Panama 271 

reference to them. The railroads obtain one- 
tenth of their gross earnings from extortionate 
mail contracts with the government. Why ? Be- 
cause the Senate is there to prevent any inter- 
ference with the railway, express, telegraph and 
telephone monopolies. 

Our Senators could at a single session break up 
the steel trust by reducing the tariff, the ex- 
press trust by establishing a parcel post, the tele- 
graph and telephone trusts by adding these 
analogous services to the postoffice. They could 
thus go a great way towards diverting the flow 
of wealth from the pockets of the people into 
those of the monopolists. Why don't they do it? 
Because they are the servants, not of the people, 
but of the monopolies. Away with the oligarchy ! 
Let the people elect their Senators! 

As soon as I can get my stenographic notes 
transcribed I will send you more of my diary. 

I mail this in a postoffice opposite the most 
beautiful little park I have ever seen. I will de- 
scribe it and the rest of this country in my next 
letter. 

Cristobal, April 19, 1907. 
Both the German and French steamers sailed 
to-day. I would have gone on one of them, but 
I had a headache yesterday and could not pack 
my trunks. I am going on the "Zephyr," which 
sails to-morrow, as far as Boca del Toro (Mouth 
of the Bull), so called because the shape of the 
harbor resembles the head of a bull — if you get 
the right view of it. Mrs. Snow says that the 
accommodations are so poor, the boat being so 



272 Light on Dark Places 

small, it is "absolute madness" for me to travel 
on it, but I prefer to rather than wait ten days 
for the next German steamer. 

Saturday, April 20, 1907. 
The "Zephyr" is terrible ! I have the one state- 
room on the miserable little craft, given up to 
me by an employe of the United Fruit Company. 
The passengers, with three exceptions, are all 
negroes, or part negro. A dear little friend of 
mine came down to the boat with her father to 
see me off and brought pretty farewell presents. 

San Jose de Costa Rica, April, 1907. 
I was very seasick for the first time in my life 
— on the sea — because the boat was so very small, 
I suppose. Everybody else aboard was seasick, 
too, and you can imagine how unpleasant it was. 
My stateroom was a little hole in one side of one 
end of the boat, in which I could not sit up 
straight. I wish I had waited for the next Ger- 
man steamer as advised by Mrs. Snow T and the 
German Consul. We arrived at Boca del Toro 
the next morning. I had a letter of introduction 
to a merchant there given to me by a mutual 
friend in Colon. After leaving the boat I asked 
every person I passed on the dock where the 
gentleman lived to whom my letter was ad- 
dressed, but no one seemed to understand and 
those who answered spoke Spanish. Finally one 
man led me to the porch of a large mercantile 
building and pointed upstairs. I ascended and 
found myself on a wide veranda extending over 
the water. Being hungry and exhausted from 



at Panama 1273 

the wretched night I had passed I was extremely; 
anxious to present my letter of introduction, es- 
pecially as not a person in the town seemed to 
understand English. I hoped he possessed a hos- 
pitable wife, but he had carelessly neglected to 
have such a person there to welcome me. There 
were several rooms opening on the veranda and 
the doors to all but one were open. I knocked 
loudly on every one in turn, but received no 
reply. Then I looked in every door and every 
room was vacant. Sinking deeper and deeper 
into the depths of despair, I went back down the 
veranda and knocked again on every door. On 
my third trip down the veranda I decided to walk 
into the second room, hoping to find somebody in 
some room beyond — and I did. In the adjoining 
room I surprised, and I supposed scared, a half- 
dressed man washing himself. I retreated in 
haste, and as soon as I was out of sight said, 
"Please excuse me, but can you tell me where I 
can find Mr. Strauss, I have a letter of introduc- 
tion to him?" "He has been dead a year," re- 
sponded the voice within. I almost wept. "What 
shall I do?" I said, "I cannot speak Spanish and 
I have got to stop in this town two days. I 
thought perhaps he was the deceased Mr. S. and 
would not own it because of the way I surprised 
him. Then I looked at my letter and saw that 
it was not addressed to Mr. Strauss, but to "Mr. 
Walker. Successor to Mr. Strauss." I stated this 
fact and thankfully heard this response, "I am 
Mr. Walker and I will be out in a few minutes." 
He soon escorted me to the French Hotel, where 
he boards, and where I was able to secure a room 



274 Light on Dark Places 

and meals — very poor meals, but not a bad room. 
As soon as I had washed and rested I started out 
to view the town. After filthy Colon and Pan- 
ama I was very much surprised to find a pretty, 
clean little town in this Spanish-American coun- 
try, but it is not laid out in the Spanish style — 
narrow streets, etc. It is very small, the houses 
wooden and the streets unpaved. The United 
Fruit Company has large buildings here and it is 
one of the ports from which they ship bananas. 
There is a little wooden church on one street with 
the doors and pillars at the entrance painted in 
an exact imitation of red and white Castile soap. 
I stepped in to view the interior and found a row 
of ants busily drinking the holy water. There 
is nothing eatable or drinkable ants in the tropics 
are not after unless it is in sealed bottles or jars. 
During my walk I passed a fruit stand, and there, 
in their own country, a native woman refused to 
sell me a very small pineapple for 5 cents gold. 
I left it and later in the day mentioned the fact 
to a U. S. sanitary officer stationed at Boca. He 
said that was nothing unusual, an American was 
lucky to buy one for 10 cents gold, and he would 
get me a pineapple. I asked him to go to that 
fruit stand because it looked cleaner than the 
others. When he returned he said he went there 
first, but this independent woman refused to sell 
him anything because a few days before he had 
forbidden her to throw dirty water in the street. 
The United States Government has placed sani- 
tary inspectors at Boca del Toro to prevent the 
spread of disease there and so keep disease com- 
ing: to the Isthmus from there. I left Boca Mon- 



at Panama 275 

day night at 9 o'clock on the "Heliogoland." I 
thought in traveling on the "Zephyr" I had 
reached the last limit of human endurance, but 
it was palatial as compared with the "Heliogo- 
land," which is about the size of a big bath room. 
I was going to exaggerate a little and say bath 
tub, but remember I promised you to always give 
exact facts. In this tub, called a gasoline launch, 
and there was a strong smell of gasoline, were 
packed nearly as closely as sardines several pas- 
sengers with their baggage, a quantity of freight 
and a Scotch collie, all bound for Port Limon. 
We were due there at 4 o'clock the next morning, 
but as the engine broke down repeatedly we did 
not arrive until over six hours later. As the 
inspecting physician had gone to breakfast we 
were obliged to remain in the boat until 12 
o'clock, at which time he returned. You can 
imagine our fatigue and misery, but not realize 
it as you did not experience it. The courtesy to 
one another and the good behavior of every one 
on the boat, suffering as we were from the ex- 
treme discomfort of such a long trip in such 
wretched accommodations, was remarkable. We 
had to sit up all night, had nothing to eat, and 
did not have room to even sit comfortably, we 
were packed in so closely. There were only three 
white passengers besides myself — the man who 
owned the collie and two other men. A little col- 
ored boy had taken off his stockings in the night 
and his mother told him to put them on before . 
he landed. The poor little fellow was so sea- 
sick he could hardly do it and the distressed way 
in which he rubbed his stomach during the proc- 



276 Light on Dark Places 

ess of putting on the stockings was both pitiable 
and comical. 

Baggage is weighed and duty collected on 
everything, old and new, at Costa Rica. All that 
escapes duty is what you are wearing — or have 
concealed about your person. On new goods the 
duties are higher than on old. The colored 
woman at my right side put on a pair of new 
white kid slippers and put her old shoes in her 
bundle. Another colored woman took off her old 
shoes and put on a pair of new Chinese bed- 
room slippers. She stuffed her bust with small 
packages until her dress waist refused to stretch 
farther. These preparations had to be made in 
the presence of the crowd as there was no cabin 
of any sort. Had I not been utterly exhausted 
I should have shrieked with laughter. How they 
passed the custom house officers I do not know, 
for as soon as I landed I made a bee line for the 
nearest hotel and left my trunks to be thrown 
overboard; if anybody was so inclined. I was 
too sick to care. I tried to get accommodations 
at the United Fruit Company Hotel, but there 
was no room. This company's hotels are built 
for the accommodation of its employes, but if 
they happen to have vacancies they accommodate 
travelers. They seldom have them. The treated 
me very courteously and sent an office boy to 
direct me to the best boarding house in town, 
which is a most uncomfortable place. The bed 
in my room was made of bunches of hardness. I 
had heard favorable accounts of the food served 
in Costa Rica and expected something nice, but 
nothing was very nice but the fish. The coffee 



at Panama 2JJ 

was more bitter than the tonic I take for indiges- 
tion. I walked around Limon to see all I could. 
It was evident at once that it was laid out by an 
American or an Englishman as the streets are 
wide; in fact, it looks very nice. The plaza, or 
public park, contains the most beautiful collec- 
tion of variegated foliage plants I ever saw. 
There are also tea roses and other flowers we 
have in the temperate zone. I walked pass ole- 
anders half as tall again as myself. I wish it had 
been possible to have gotten a picture of this 
plaza which would give you some idea of its 
beauty. It was the fragrance of the tea roses 
which first made me conscious that they were 
there. I smelled them before I saw them. In 
the evening there was a delightful nutty odor, 
something like an English walnut, from 
some plant. I wish I knew its name. The 
streets were very clean, but the only vis- 
ible members of the street cleaning depart- 
ment were turkey buzzards. These homely 
birds are as independent and saucy as all pro- 
tected monopolists. It is nearly $12 gold fine to 
injure or kill one. Tho they are so highly valued 
I do not think entire credit for the cleanliness of 
the streets can be their due. I had to pay $1.75 
gold for two meals and lodging at the boarding 
house. 

Wednesday, April 24, 1907. 

I took the 10:30 train next morning for San 

Jose. I left my big trunk in the custom house, 

locked, and took my steamer trunk with me. I 

had to pay duty on my steamer trunk. Also ex- 



2j8 ; Light on Dark Places 

tra baggage on the railroad, 75 cents Costa Rican 
money. Every one spoke Spanish, which was, 
of course, very inconvenient for me. The United 
States Consul was very kind. He went to the 
depot with me when I bought my ticket and put 
me safely on the train. One of the officials of 
the Fruit Company, happening to be at the sta- 
tion, introduced me to the doctor in charge of the 
Fruit Company's Hospital and asked him to tell 
the driver of the cab I took at San Jose to take 
me to the boarding house to which I had been di- 
rected by a friend at Colon. I was very for- 
tunate to be introduced to this doctor, as he 
speaks English fluently, having lived and been 
educated in the United States. As the train 
passed thru the mountains he described all the 
points of interest. Tho I traveled in a first-class 
carriage almost all the passengers were negroes. 
The women were very dressy, wearing consid- 
erable jewelry, silks, embroideries, etc. One sat 
near me with a rose pink waist and scarlet sash. 

The railroad follows the seashore for about 
eight miles. It is a narrow gage road and the 
cars are so narrow they reminded me of toys. 
On one side of the narrow aisle two people may 
be seated, but only one on the other. 

Of course, there are many palm and banana 
trees. I should judge each banana stalk is about 
a yard long and covered with clusters of bananas, 
which are termed "hands." The stalks are 
classed as firsts and seconds, according to the 
number of hands. The bananas I saw growing 
were all green and each stalk hung from the tree 
and terminated in a large reddish purple flower 



at Panama 279 

at the end of a long stem. These flowers were 
conical in shape when I saw them, being closed 
and wilting. There were plum trees bearing 
long narrow green plums (I think unripe) with 
fine beautiful leaves. This plum is called the 
jocote. There were also rose bushes with our 
pink roses, and sugar cane. One railroad station 
is named Madre De Dios (Mother of God). I 
noticed some very tall trees, taller than any of the 
rest, with very large trunks. These are the 
Guayabo Macho. The next station was Rio 
Hondo (Deep River), another Monte Verde 
(Green Mountain). We next came to immense 
banana fields, many square miles in area; just 
how many the doctor did not know. We crossed 
the Reventazon (Splashing River) twice on iron 
bridges and then followed it. The bed of this 
river is very stony. The train stopped about 10 
minutes at Siquirres. Many of the passengers 
left the train and returned with bottles of cocoa 
cola. I saw one of my old friends, the white- 
faced monkeys, tied on a porch shortly after 
leaving Siquirres. I noticed the more bracing 
air as we ascended the mountain a while before 
this. ■ Presently we passed a large ice factory. It 
is from this that Port Limon is supplied with ice. 
The probable reason for its location at such a 
distance from Port Limon is the abundance of 
water. 

The Costa Rican Railway belongs to a com- 
pany whose contract with the government will 
expire in about ninety years. The fresh air as we 
ascended the mountain was fine ; you could imag- 
ine you were out of the tropics. We then passed 



2&> Light on Dark Places 

a place on the mountain where landslides some- 
times occur which tear up the tracks and travel 
ceases until they are repaired. There had been 
none for about a year and I sincerely hoped that 
they would not have any more until I got back 
down the mountain. It looked strange to see corn 
like that in the States growing among the tropical 
trees and plants. The train consisted of five cars. 
I rode in the last, but often saw the engine, ow- 
ing to the curves of the mountain. It reminded 
me of my trip to the Yo Semite Valley and the 
curves we passed over in the Sierras when the 
heads of the leaders on the stage seemed parallel 
with the back seat. We next passed thru what I 
hate most in railroad travel — a tunnel. I was 
very glad that it was a short one. The worst one 
I ever passed thru was the Hoosick tunnel in New 
England. The next station is Turrialba, a cor- 
ruption of "Torre Alba" (White Tower), named 
for the estate of the Marquises of Torre Alba in 
Spain. I infer from this that the Spaniards must 
have given England its ancient name of Albion, 
for it seems to me that I have read that England 
was formerly called Albion, because of its white, 
chalk cliffs. Am I right, or am I wandering in 
the fields of imagination? Beyond this station, 
negroes are not allowed to live. The doctor in-! 
formed me that the negroes in Costa Rica are 
Jamaicans, imported to build the railroad and to 
tend the banana plantations. It is a mystery to 
me how such a small place as Jamaica supplies so' 
many negro laborers. Negresses came to the cars 
at Turrialba carrying large platters filled with 
sliced pineapples and candies. The doctor told 



at Panama 281 

one of them to pass the platter to me. The fruit 
was white, juicy and very delicious, but had a 
large core in the center. I had brought no lunch, 
supposing that on a journey of so many hours 
the train would stop for lunch at some station. 
The doctor kindly offered me some of his. I re- 
fused it at first, not wishing to impose on a 
stranger in that way, but when he repeated the 
offer two hours later, I was so much hungrier I 
accepted. He handed me half of a broiled 
chicken and some crackers. Knowing my fond- 
ness for broiled chicken, you can imagine the 
courage it took for me to break off the drumstick 
and second joint and return the rest. However, 
I managed to do so and ate what I kept with in- 
imitable grace. I was very much pleased and 
concluded that Costa Rica abounded in broiled 
chickens. Alas! that was the only thing in the 
guise of a chicken I met in Costa Rica with the 
exception of an old fowl served at Sunday dinner 
at my boarding place, which surely must have 
been a great-great-grandparent. I have regretted 
ever since that I did not eat the whole half. 
There are almost no Indians in Costa Rica as 
they were nearly exterminated by the Spaniards 
when they settled in the country. Tobacco is 
raised here and I also saw the plant growing from 
which rope is made. After the station Paraiso 
it seemed very odd to find the fields divided off 
by stone walls like those of New England. We 
soon passed the extinct volcano, which the ladies 
at Colon told me of, then Cartargo, the health re- 
sort. This place boasts a church named "Our 
Lady of the Angels," which shelters a miraculous 



282 Light on Dark Places 

virgin. I asked the doctor what she did and he 
said, "Anything you want." I contemplated get- 
ting out and invoking her aid in several things, 
but concluded to leave my affairs with Headquar- 
ters, as heretofore in my weary pilgrimage thru 
this vale of tears. Cartargo is a real old Spanish 
town with nothing modern in its appearance, al- 
most all the buildings being one story, stucco, 
with tile roofs. They looked quaint and com-, 
fortable, but the glimpses of the interiors as the., 
train passed appeared to be very dirty. A little 
black pig chasing a little dog was a funny sight. 
The air was chilly, and the grass being all dried 
up, as the rainy season had not commenced, made 
the landscape look very bleak. The rainy season 
does not begin until about the 1st of May. When 
the grass is green the whole appearance is 
changed and beautified. 'The train reached San 
Jose at 5 P. M. and the doctor directed the cab 
driver to the boarding house and bade me good- 
bye. My hostess was a native Costa Rican with 
the charming manners which the native ladies of 
tropical countries so often have. Her parents 
had lived twenty years in San Francisco during 
the childhood of herself and brothers and sisters, 
so they speak English and Spanish with equal 
fluency. The architecture of San Jose is almost 
entirely that of Spanish- America, and most of the 
streets are narrow with sidewalks barely wide 
enough for two people to walk abreast, tho some 
of the newer ones are of convenient width. 

The climate reminded me of that of San Fran- 
cisco, being very warm in the sun and always a 
little uncomfortable chill out of the sun; never, 



at Panama" ,283 

in my opinion, an agreeable medium. Those who 
like the California climate would surely be 
pleased with that of San Jose. Also, as in San 
Francisco, fleas favor every newcomer with un- 
ceasing attention and do not neglect the perma- 
nent residents. My hostess, believing it healthier 
to sleep upstairs, has just built a new two-story 
wooden house similar to homes in the States. 
This being full, I was quartered in an old Spanish 
house just across the street which she hires. This 
is one story, stucco, with a narrow hall in the 
center and rooms on each side. It reminded me 
of a New York flat. Every morning, very early, 
I could see and hear the ox carts passing my win- 
dow. The way these oxen are yoked was a con- 
tinual source of distress to me and my landlady 
said it is a very cruel way to yoke them, and many 
foreigners who have come to Costa Rica have 
tried to have it changed, but have hot succeeded. 
Instead of a yoke and bow, as our oxen are har- 
nessed, a sort of wooden hat is placed on each 
ox's head with holes for their horns, and the 
tongue of the wagon is fastened to these hats. 
This brings the entire weight of the load on their 
foreheads and it seems dreadful to me. Being 
compelled to hold their heads so low must be 
more than bad enough aside from the weight of 
the load. Then, too, this wooden hat reaches low 
enough to keep their ears pointing downward. I 
never noticed how our cattle wear their ears, but 
it did not look proper at all to me to see the Costa 
Rican oxen's ears hanging so low. Some of the 
carts are plain and unpainted, but many of them 
are bright red or blue with designs outlined in 



284 Light on Dark Places 

yellow paint. I do not like the wheels of the carts 
because I think they are heavier than our wheels 
are. They have no spokes, but are solid disks of 
wood. Is not this a much heavier wheel than one 
with spokes? I enclose a post card which I 
bought for you to see the oxen and ox carts, 
but to fully understand what I am describing you 
would have to see them pulling a heavy load up 
a steep hill. The carts I saw were loaded with 
vegetables, bricks or sugar cane. I visited the 
city market one morning with my landlady, where 
I saw many of the fruits and vegetables that we 
have, as well as all those of the tropics. There is 
seldom any fish served in San Jose because it has 
to be brought up from Port Limon, the Splash- 
ing River being such a rough and turbulent 
stream, fish do not live in it. As I was walking 
thru Limon one day I met a man with a wheel- 
barrow containing a fish nearly a yard long and 
about a half a yard in diameter and almost the 
color of a goldfish. I intended to find out what 
kind it was, but forgot to do so. Fish is abun- 
dant in Limon. There are no sheep in Costa 
Rica, consequently no lamb or mutton. After the 
tropical custom, the first meal was mostly imag- 
inary. At the next meal, which they call break- 
fast, from the quantity of food served, every one 
must have been expected to gorge themselves. 
The first course, oatmeal; second, eggs; third, 
meat, with from three to five vegetables and cof- 
fee and oranges. If they had served the eggs 
and oatmeal in the early morning I would have 
been much better pleased. The dinner, served 
at six, consisted of soup, a substitute for the fish 



at Panama 285 

course, meat and vegetables, dessert and bitter 
coffee. One of the boarders, a Scotch gentleman, 
doing business for some English house, said we 
were fortunate to get as good a place in Costa 
Rica, that the roaches and fleas in the best hotels 
are terrible, and sometimes there is water for the 
bath and sometimes there is not. Miss M's is 
kept as clean as any boarding house I have ever 
seen anywhere, which surprised me, as I was in 
the tropics. 

San Jose, April 27th. 

As I wrote you in a former letter, I intended 
to take the German steamer for Jamaica when I 
left Port Limon, but after seeing Costa Rica de- 
cided it was not worth while spending any more 
time and money prowling round in the tropics. 
The United Fruit Company will not risk having 
a steamer held in quarantine by sick passengers, 
as a cargo of bananas would get too ripe to be 
salable, which would mean thousands of dollars' 
loss, therefore to be allowed to take passenge 
from LimOn on a fruit boat for New Orleans I 
was told to report daily to the U. S. Consul at 
San Jose, then to the Fruit Company's doctor at 
Port Limon, thus proving that I had not the yel- 
low fever for five days before embarking. I first 
reported to the Consul on Saturday, April 27th. 
We had a long talk about Panama and he was 
greatly interested in what I told him. 

Beyond the rear of the house where I roomed 
is a place where coffee is prepared for market and 
I visited it to see the process. I took a road 
across the fields which seemed to lead there, but 



286 Light on Dark Places 

I wandered into a brewery, and found a lot of 
people bottling beer in countless bottles. The en- 
trance was guarded by two enormous mouse- 
colored dogs in large iron cages, who looked 
something like Great Danes. They rushed to the 
front of the cages, growling, barking and throw- 
ing themselves against the bars. I asked several 
people the way to the coffee factory, but it was 
some time before any one answered in English. 
When I reached it I found only three men walk- 
ing thru the grounds and one of them, in response 
to my inquiry, informed me that they made cof- 
fee only in January, February and March. There 
were several large cemented spaces as large as 
big rooms divided by low partitions about a foot 
high, and back of these a building with an enor- 
mous mill wheel. I am sorry that I cannot de- 
scribe the works in operation. 

I continued my walk along the country road. 
The houses were all one story, built of brick and 
covered with plaster. The roofs are made of 
tiles that look more like half flower pots than 
anything else. Had it not been for its fragrance 
I would have missed the beautiful sight of a large 
orange tree in full bloom on a hillside just be- 
low the road. Again I longed for a camera that 
would photograph colors for your pleasure. 

Miss M. went to Port Limon to meet two sis- 
ters who had been in the States several months 
for their health. She delegated one of the board- 
ers to preside at the table and when we met at 
dinner we were served with claret and he in- 
formed us that if we would pay our board in 
advance we would have 15 per cent, discount. 



at Panama 287 

Also that he had a telegram from Mr. Barr re- 
questing that, in memory of him, grace be said 
before all meals. Mr. Barr was one of the nu- 
merous crooked employes of the Canal Commis- 
sion. He had been up to recruit his health in 
the bracing air of San Jose and left owing Miss 
M. two months' board. 

I wanted to see some of the "beauties of Costa 
Rica." One of the gentlemen told me to get up 
early Sunday morning and go to the Roman 
Catholic Church and I would see some pretty 
women, but as I would had to have been at 
church at 8 o'clock I concluded not to take the 
trouble. I went to walk Sunday afternoon and 
saw several of the ladies of Costa Rica at the 
windows talking to their masculine admirers, who 
stood in the street below, and immediately re- 
membered the pictures that come in raisin boxes. 
The general appearance and manner of the ladies 
was as picturesque, but not that of the men. 
They wear the same unattractive garments our 
men do, the noticeable difference being that the 
average native of the United States appears to 
be twice their size. 

There was nothing that seemed like the United 
States in San Jose except the small boys and the 
dogs. I saw one of the former with a dead rat 
in his hand chasing a lot of screaming little girls 
and I thought, "The small boy is the same all the 
world over ; that is, wherever I have seen the lit- 
tle imps," and the dogs wag their tails in the 
same old way, only they think they are perros. 

The garden of the Brazilian Consulate is beau- 
tifully kept and displays a most attractive variety. 



288 Light on Dark Places 

of trees swid plants. There were beautiful ever- 
greens and weeping willows, which I was sur- 
prised to see, and, of course, the tropical palms 
and plants. 

I met a little girl in a pretty white dress and 
a long white veil going to take her first com- 
munion, I suppose. Her fine costume looked odd 
as she had bare feet, but they were clean, pretty 
little feet and doubtless she felt more comfortable 
than if she had on a pair of stiff shoes. 

The boarding house is located near the top of 
a very steep hill and the brewery of which I told 
you is at the bottom of it. Every day I saw loads 
of bottles drawn up this hill by horses and oxen 
harnessed to the same wagon, the horses as help- 
ers until the top of the hill was reached. 

Tuesday, April 30, 1907. 
I left San Jose on the 9 o'clock train for Port 
Limon a day before the boat sailed so as to be 
sure and not miss it, even tho this necessitated 
my reposing another night on that downy couch 
in Limon. They charged me but 50 cents extra 
baggage on my steamer trunk at the San Jose 
depot, instead of 75 cents, as in the Limon depot. 
When I arrived at Port Limon I found I could 
not go to New Orleans the next day as every 
available space had been filled before its arrival 
at Limon by members of the Southern Board of 
Trade, who had gone to the Isthmus to look into 
the discrimination which was being made against 
New Orleans in the purchasing of supplies for 
the commissary. I made as big a fuss as I could 
about being left, but the boat would not stretch 



at Panama 289 

any. I made up my mind to sit in the beautiful 
plaza as much as I could and study the plants. 
There are barracks back of it where a Costa 
Rican regiment is quartered. I arrived in time 
one morning to see a drill. They marched out 
into the road and formed in two lines and played 
a piece of music very beautifully, it seemed to me. 
A little dog belongs to the regiment and he came 
out with the rest and sat down between the lines 
swelling with importance, looking as tho he 
owned the whole regiment. He marched back, 
too, and vanished in the barracks with the rest of 
them. They conducted themselves very nicely, 
but as compared with our soldiers, in the way of 
physique, they looked like toys. 

What lots of people there are in the world who 
have not money enough to exist comfortably! 
Comparatively, I often feel quite rich because I 
do not owe anybody a cent. There was an elderly 
lady stopping at this boarding house who had 
gone to Colombia with her husband years ago. 
He was a mining engineer and was killed there. 
Up to that time she said she did not know what 
it was to be unhappy, but that left her alone with 
four little children to take care of and almost 
no money. She managed some way to get her 
children back to the States, but I think she had 
to give them away because she is not quite sure 
where her sons are. She is now trying to get 
back to them because she lost the position she had 
as matron in a hospftal and cannot get anything 
else to do. Then there was a young man, a 
stenographer, who came down to Port Limon to 
work, but lost his position and could not find 



290 Light on Dark Places 

another. He owed the landlady money and felt 
so badly about it she said he refused to eat but 
two meals a day because he could not pay for 
them. He could not leave town because he had 
nothing to pay his fare. Money did not come 
from home when he hoped for it and he had 
just made up his mind to walk to Panama be- 
cause there is plenty of work there, but the U. S. 
Consul persuaded the captain of one of the ships 
going to New York to let him work his passage 
home. Every one was thankful because he prob- 
ably would have died on the way had he tried to 
walk to Panama. He left a trunk full of nice 
clothes as security for his board. 

I had to pay duty on my trunks when I landed 
and when I left, tho one of them was never un- 
locked. It stayed in the custom house all the 
while I was there. Then I had to pay the ex- 
pressman the same amount I paid for duty. The 
duties on old clothes are not excessive, but it is 
such a nuisance to be going to the custom house, 
and they will not even put your trunks on the 
scales, but make you bring a man to the custom 
house and pay him to weigh your trunks for their 
benefit. 

I sailed for New Orleans Saturday, May 4th, 
on the steamer "Venus." She carried about 
$20,000 worth of bananas, the loading of which I 
watched with interest. The stalks were laid hori- 
zontally on a revolving contrivance which carried 
them from the dock to the steamer. They looked 
like enormous green centipedes — monster centi- 
pedes, crawling steadily, mechanically and surely 
for the ship. They were then packed solidly, 



at Panama 2gf 

standing erect. A very few were ripe by the last 
day and were served at meals. 

I was allowed a reduction on my ticket of the 
amount paid for board while waiting in Limon 
because they had promised I should sail on the 
preceding ship. How different the policy of the 
Panama Steamship Company and the United 
Fruit Company! 

I am informed that fine coffee is raised in Costa 
Rica, but is mostly exported, and the bitter stuff 
served the weary traveler is the decayed refuse, 
carefully saved, roasted and bought by boarding 
house keepers for about 6 cents a pound. 

The laws in Costa Rica are convenient for the 
owners of estates — they pay no taxes. The ex- 
pense of running the government is met by levy- 
ing duties on everything brought into the coun- 
try by its merchants and residents and visitors. 
If you ever go to Costa Rica let your baggage be 
light. 

The day before sailing from Costa Rica I re- 
ceived a letter stating that a friend who had been 
to Washington said I should have what I asked, 
for he knew I was entitled to it, and that while 
there he had seen influential people and every- 
thing had been arranged for me to receive a fair 
salary. I do not intend to return, however, for I 
feel that I have done one citizen's duty towards 
building the Panama Canal, and my future ef- 
forts shall be confined to sympathizing with the 
engineers of our army, who have now undertaken 
this difficult task and who have the reputation of 
being everything they should be, both in ability 
and integrity. 



Sam S. & Lee Shubert 

direct the following theatres and theatrical 
attractions in America : 



Hippodrome, Lyric, Casino, 
Dalys, Lew Fields, Herald 
Square and Princess Thea- 
tres, New York. 

Garrick Theatre, Chicago. 

Lyric Theatre, Philadelphia. 

Shubert Theatre, Brooklyn. 

Belasco Theatre, Washing- 
ton. 

Belasco Theatre, Pittsburg. 

Shubert Theatre, Newark. 

Shubert Theatre, Utica. 

Grand Opera House, Syra- 
cuse. 

Baker Theatre, Rochester. 

Opera House, Providence. 

Worcester Theatre, Worces- 
ter. 

Hyperion 
Haven. 



Theatre, New 



Lyceum Theatre, Buffalo. 

Colonial Theatre, Cleveland. 

Rand's Opera House, Troy. 

Garrick Theatre, St. Louis. 

Sam S. Shubert Theatre, 
Norfolk, Va. 

Shubert Theatre, Columbus. 

Lyric, Cincinnati. 



Mary Anderson Theatre, 
Louisville. 

New Theatre, Richmond, 
Va. 

New Theatre, Lexington, Ky. 
New Theatre, Mobile. 
New Theatre, Atlanta. 
Shubert Theatre, Milwau- 
kee. 

Lyric Theatre, New Orleans. 
New Marlowe Theatre, 
Chattanooga. 

New Theatre, Detroit. % 

Grand Opera House, Dav- 
enport, Iowa. 

New Theatre, Toronto." 

New Sothern Theatre, Den- 
ver. 

Sam S. Shubert Theatre, 
Kansas City. 

Majestic Theatre, Los An- 
geles. 

Belasco Theatre, Portland. 

Shubert Theatre, Seattle. 

Majestic Theatre, San Fran- 
cisco. 

E. H. Sothern & Julia Mar- 
lowe in repertoire. 



Margaret Anglin and Henry * Shore Acres." 

Mlller * Louis Mann in « « The White 

Virginia Harned. Hen." 

Mary Mannering in " Glori- „ The Road to yesterday." 

ous Betsy." * 

Mme. Alia Nazimova. Hen ry Woodruff in - Brown 

Thos. W. Ross in "The 14m _ _ .* n . - „ - 

Other Girl." ^ Secret^ Orchard," by 

Cecelia Loftus. 



Channing Pollock. 



De Wolf Hopper in " Hap- 

Clara Bloodgood. pyland." 

Blanche Ring. ^^ Foy fa „ The 0rchid „ 

Alexander Carr. 

DigbyBell. Mar^erite Clark, m a new 

"Sunte?" 1 BChlnd thC "The Social Whirl," with 

<~ oumer - Chas. J. Rosi. 

"The Light Eternal.' Jameg T p(meM . fl t< ^ 

"The Snow Man." Blue Moon." 

Blanche Bates in " The Girl Bertha Kalich. 

from the Golden West." "j^ah Kleschna." 
Darid Warfield in "The 

Music Master." "The Man on the Box." 
" The Rose of the Rancho," 

with Rose Starr. Cyril Scott in " The Prince 

Harrison Gray Fiskr's Chap." 

Attractions. „ Mrs Tcmple . s Telegram." 
Mrs. Fiske in "The New 

York Idea." " The Three of Us." 



You cannot go wrong in selecting one of 
these play-houses for an evening's entertain- 
ment in whatever city you may happen to be. 



BOOKS YOV MVST READ 
SOONER OR. LATER 



Lady Century 

By Mrs. A. G. Kintzel^ 

>4 Drawings by Hartman. 



Decorated cover in black, red and gohfr 
^$1.50. 

Critics who have seen the book declare 'irsupenor lo 
"Leave Me My Honor," the success which has recently 
brought Mrs. Kintzel into prominence as a_story-tellcr 
who has something to say and can say %f 

"Sparkling from cover to cover." 



NAN & SUE 

Stenographers 

*By Harriet C. Cullaton^ 

^$1.00. 

y You've - !© "doubt heard of this booklTltstandVal! 
alone in the originality of its title and subject, and every- 
one knows how charming a subject "Nan & Sue, Ste- 
nographers," must be. It is the diary of a typewriting 
office in New York run by two young and pretty girb. 
who have the most amusing adventures. The book's ap-' 
pearance is as original and charming as Nan and Sue 
themselves., 

Orde* iiowland join^e7procession7o^tbO«tofMi 
10th edition. < 



■ ll H>Mf 



BOOKS YOU NVST HEAD 
SOONER OK LATER 



Saltan of the Modern World 

By E. G. Doyen.. 

*2mo, cloth, handsomely produced. 

$150- 

Ttielitle of this book will arouse cufi6s^tyr"ari<TUs 
brilliant contents will fully reward the wide public which 
it will reach. 



A Missouriai\*s Honor 

\- 

Bv W. W. Arnou>„ 

.Cloth, i2mo. $1.00.. 

3 Illustrations.. 









Llewellyn 

A NOVEL 

BY HADLEY S. KlMBERLlNa, 

Cloth. $1.50* 

"5 Illustrations by S. Klarr? 

Here is a story whose artistic realism wflf~appeal to 
everyone, while its distinction as a serious novel is made 
evident by its clever analysis, sparkling dialogue and 
thrilling and powerful situations. . "Llewellyn'^will win 
all hearts by her purity and charm.^ 



BOOKS YOU MVST READ 
SOONER OR LATER 

Lost in the Mammoth Cave 

By D. Riley Guernsey. 
Decorated cloth, i2mo. Illustrated. 
Price, $1.50. 
A tale which a Jules Verne might envy from 
his own vantage ground. Imagine the possibili- 
ties for a story which are conjured up by the 
thought of a party of brainy men and women 
lost in the Mammoth Cave! 
A prominent reviewer says: 
"This ought to be an immensely popular book. 
There are no idle moments from cover to cover, 
and it is one which the reader will not think ^of 
laying aside until he has read every word.' 

Under the Darkness of the 
Night 

A Tale of West Indian Insurrection. 

By Ellen Chazal Chapeau. 
Cloth, i2mo. Attractively Produced. 
Price, $1.00. 
The scenes of this story are laid in Ste. 
Domingue from 1792-93- It is a most timely 
book, written bv one whose life has been passed 
among West Indians, and who can read the 
African character with surprising skill and ac- 
curacy. A wonderful picture of tropical life, 
brilliantly depicted. 

Broadway Publishing: Company, 

835 Broadway, New York, 



BOOKS YOU NVST READ 
SOONER OR LATER 

J\[o Surrender. 

By John N. Swift and William S. Birge, M.D. 

Cloth, i2mo. Frontispiece. Price, $1.50 

From the moment this story opens in the old 
whaling station of New Bedford, until the climax 
of climaxes is reached in the high seas some- 
where off the coast of Chile, excitement and in- 
terest are in order. It is a tale that allows of 
no laying aside and as incident comes crowding 
upon incident the reader finds himself utterly 
oblivious to everything but the words before 
him. 

Imagine, if you can, the consternation of the 
Chilean commander and his officers of the cruiser 
"Dona Inez" when, on their arrival at the land- 
ing stage, ready to embark after an hour's shore 
leave, they find the ship, which they had left 
safely swinging at her moorings, completely 
vanished. 

Such a statement is enough to arouse im- 
mediate curiosity and what became of the "Dona" 
and what became of the Chilean commander and 
his officers forms the plot of this most extra- 
ordinary narrative. 

Of course the "Dona" has been skilfully pur- 
loined for felonious purposes, and while she and 
her piratical crew are undergoing all manner of 
marine castastrophe one of the former officers 
is dashing overland to head off if possible dis- 
agreeable contingencies with the Chilean Naval 
Department. His adventures are not less thril- 
ling than those which befall the ship, and the 
clever chapter arrangement keeps the reader's 
interest ever whetted. 

Broadway Publishing Company, 

835 Broadway, New York. 



^BOOKS YOU MVSrREAD 
SOONER OR LATER 

Reuben: His Book 

By Morton H. Pembertow. 

Cloth, Gilt lettering, limo. Postpaid, $1.00. 
Portrait in Colors. 

One of the funniest, cleverest, uniquest volnasaa 
of the day, it has won spontaneous and unaai- 
mous approval from reviewers the country or*r. 

Just hear what a few of them say: 

Champ Clark.— "I haven't laughed so much 
since I first read Mark Twain's 'Roughing It.'" 

Globe-Democrat.— "This little book has the 
merit of brevity, variety and humor. It is safe 
to say that the book will have many readers and 
that it will afford much amusement." 

St. Louis Republic— "The book is already 
heading the list of 'best sellers/ and deserves to 
go. It is GOOD. It is the sort of thing which 
might move the provincial journalist to say, 
'Reub, here's our hand.'" 

Ji Scarlet Repentance 

By Archie Bell. 
Cloth, i2mo. Price, $1.00. 

One Review: "The history of one night and 
one day's flaming passion between a beauti- 
ful Italian woman and a handsome youth — 
strangers — who meet upon a Pullman car. 
There comes into the story all the elementary 
passions, hatred, jealousy, desire and — sorrow. 

"It is a story that will appeal to those who 
prefer novels in which red blood is throbbing 
madly. It is not for prudes, nor for parsons, 
nor poseurs. It's a book for men and women 
who have lived."— The Club-Fellow. 

Broadway Publishing Company, 

835 Broadway, New York. 



BOOKS YOU MUST READ 
SOONER OR LATER 



Why JVot Order fiobu ? 



Evelyn 

lAlStory of the "West and the Far East, 

By Mrs. Ansel Open beim. 

4 Illus. $1.50. 

Limited edition in leather, $2.06. 

IftetNN baa spoken of tala book wltb unqualified terms of pr*J*C 



The Le^st of the. Cavillers 

By N. J. FLom. 

v 9 Drawings and Author's Photo.: 

$1*50. 

JJ?N© wiser or more brilliant pea has told the story of 
[the Gvfl War than Capt Floyd's ; no work more thrilling 
Simply as a romance has recently been within th# reach 
of Oook-lavers." 

iwimMUjawiunajajULi-jj 1 ' ww j.^iAUiajliUJij!,liuuLU i .. i i i ii.i i . i n ■ » m 



APR 23 1908 



